Holiday shopping is running ahead of last year with the projected busiest shopping day of the year yet to come, credit and debit card transaction processor Moneris said Thursday.

Through the first six weeks of the holiday shopping period, covering Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, consumer debit and credit card spending is up 9.7 per cent from last year, the company said.

Businesses seeing jumps from last year include bakeries, household goods stores, sporting goods stores and stationary stores, all of which are experiencing greater than 11 per cent increases from 2004. The figures don't include cash transactions.

Dec. 23 is expected to be the busiest shopping day for the fourth year in a row, as Moneris projected that a peak of roughly 640 transactions per second will occur around 1:30 p.m. EST. Over nine million transactions are expected to be processed on that day.

"Canadian retailers stand to benefit most from this heated competition and should expect a flurry of last minute activity tomorrow afternoon," said Jim Baumgartner, the president and CEO of Moneris.