Driven by Christmas shopping fever and growing hunger for material goods, Europeans in former communist states are putting aside a historic aversion to taking out loans as their spending habits change and a new generation of debtors takes root

Driven by Christmas shopping fever and growing hunger for material goods, Europeans in former communist states are putting aside a historic aversion to taking out loans as their spending habits change and a new generation of debtors takes root. Malls and huge supermarkets have mushroomed in recent years, enticing people to become increasingly consumption-orientated in the eight former central and eastern European Soviet bloc states that joined the European Union last May. In the Czech Republic alone, 10 new large supermarkets - also known as hypermarkets - sprang up in 2004. At no time is the desire for material things more visible than during the Christmas season, when people cram malls while banks flood airwaves from Budapest to Riga with "Christmas credit" promotions. "Our consumer loans and credit card demands soar some 40% above the monthly average during the holiday season," said Csaba Lantos, head of retail banking at OTP, Hungary's largest bank which has a 40-percent share of the retail loan market. In Poland, several banks promise Christmas loans at low interest rates, even zero percent but in return they charge "hefty" commissions, according to Maciej Kosowski of the Polish financial internet portal Expander. Among Romanians, considerably poorer than the new EU members but hopeful of joining the Union in 2007, the consumer culture is also taking hold. Instead of the Christmas credit schemes, so-called "personal credits" of under 3,000 euros are proving a runaway hit with those short of money in the holiday season.