On Saturday, Bild newspaper reported that this year almost a quarter of Germans will not be able to buy Christmas gifts due to inflation, according to a new survey by the Institute for New Social Answers (INSA).

The report stated that this year 23% of respondents state they will not buy Christmas presents at all, as another 22% said they will need to dip into their savings to afford presents this holiday season. 3% more said they will have to go into debt to afford Christmas presents.

Fewer than half of respondents said they would be able to afford Christmas presents within their budgetary limitations. The report did not detail how many participants took part in the survey.

In the report, Bild pointed out that according to the price comparison tool by Idealo, the cost of Christmas gifts in Germany has increased this year by roughly 56% over 2021. The analysis was based on an examination of over 120 popular Christmas gifts.

According to data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), German inflation hit a new historic high in October, after jumping 10.4% in October. Although November’s data has not been released yet, it is widely expected it will have remained over 10%.

Rising energy cost have mostly driven the surge, with the elimination of cheap pipeline gas flows from Russia the chief driver.

The public is not pleased, with a survey conducted by INSA last month showing that over half of Germans think Berlin is failing to appropriately deal with the energy crisis, as almost 30% say they will not be able to pay for energy in the coming months.