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Papa Murphy's Take 'N' Bake Pizza's signature Halloween pizza.Global stocks markets are plummeting, house prices are slumping and jobless figures are rising but Americans are not about to let a financial crisis dent their Halloween fun.
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Global stocks markets are plummeting, house prices are slumping and jobless figures are rising but Americans are not about to let a financial crisis dent their Halloween fun.
About three quarters of Americans plan to celebrate the ghost and goblins holiday, and despite the credit crunch most are going to delve deeper into their pockets this year to buy candies, costumes and decorations.
The average American will spend $47 on Halloween, 18 percent more than last year, credit card company Visa Inc said, based on the findings of its polls of American consumers.
Although the surveys were done in late summer, October's financial meltdown is unlikely to curb Halloween spending.
"I think people are still going to be spending on Halloween," said Jason Alderman, director of financial education at Visa Inc.
"It is one of those holidays that people derive a lot of pleasure for a relatively little amount of money. In these challenging times when a lot of people are worried and a pall is cast over a lot of families. This is a relatively inexpensive way to try to forget those troubles," he added.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) puts the figure even higher at $66.54. It predicts total spending for the holiday will be about $5.7 billion, based on its September poll by BIG research of 8,167 consumers.
"The bottom line when it comes to Halloween, in general, it is a relatively cheap and inexpensive holiday and consumers are ready to focus on fun and forget about what is going on," Kathy Grannis, a spokesperson for the NRF, explained.
Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is expected to be a top choice for Halloween. She topped the list of most searched political masks on Yahoo, followed by presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain.
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(Agencies)
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眼下全球股市暴跌、房價(jià)下滑，失業(yè)率不斷上升，但金融危機(jī)并沒有影響到美國民眾過萬圣節(jié)的好心情。
調(diào)查顯示，今年約有四分之三的美國民眾打算慶祝萬圣節(jié)；盡管面臨信貸緊縮，但多數(shù)人表示今年萬圣節(jié)他們還是會購買糖果、節(jié)日服裝和裝飾品。
該項(xiàng)由Visa信用卡公司在美國消費(fèi)者中開展的調(diào)查顯示，今年萬圣節(jié)的人均消費(fèi)預(yù)計(jì)為47美元，比去年增長18%。
盡管該調(diào)查是在今年夏末進(jìn)行的，但10月份的金融危機(jī)應(yīng)該不會影響到萬圣節(jié)的節(jié)日消費(fèi)。
Visa公司金融教育主管杰森?阿德爾曼說：“我認(rèn)為萬圣節(jié)還是會掀起一陣消費(fèi)熱?！?/font>
他說：“萬圣節(jié)可以讓人們得到很多樂趣，花錢又不多。在這種人人擔(dān)憂、家家煩惱的非常時(shí)期，歡度萬圣節(jié)是一個(gè)既經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)惠又能忘記煩惱的好機(jī)會?！?/font>
據(jù)全美零售業(yè)協(xié)會（NRF）估算，今年萬圣節(jié)的人均消費(fèi)甚至?xí)?，預(yù)計(jì)將達(dá)66.54美元。該機(jī)構(gòu)根據(jù)BIG公司今年9月對8167名消費(fèi)者開展的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查作出預(yù)測，今年萬圣節(jié)的總消費(fèi)額將達(dá)約57億美元。
NRF發(fā)言人凱西?格蘭尼斯解釋說：“這主要是因?yàn)檫^萬圣節(jié)的花費(fèi)相對較少，人們打算趁機(jī)狂歡一把，忘記眼下發(fā)生的一切?！?/font>
共和黨副總統(tǒng)候選人莎拉?佩林有望成為萬圣節(jié)的最熱門人物。日前，她成為雅虎網(wǎng)“大選熱門人物面具”搜索榜冠軍，超過了兩位總統(tǒng)候選人巴拉克?奧巴馬和約翰?麥凱恩。
（實(shí)習(xí)生瞿漫 英語點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）
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