A total of $14 billion will be spent across Australia in the lead up to Christmas as the National Retailers Association (NRA) projects a total of $50.1 billion for the whole holiday period.

The 2019 7-day countdown forecast to Christmas Day (18 to 24 December) begins tomorrow with an expected $15 billion to be spent, with online sales added.

NRA CEO Dominque Lamb expects the shopping frenzy to ramp up in the final days before Christmas.

It comes after a relatively underwhelming year for retail, according to Ms Lamb, despite ‘relief’ from the Black Friday weekend sales ‘unprecedented success’ of $5 billion.

According to Roy Morgan, annual Christmas retail sales forecast $52.7 billion across retail stores during the Christmas trading period.

In conjunction with the Australian Retailers Association, this year will see an increase of 2.6% in retail expenditure.

ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman warns that the sale prediction was predicated on regions getting lucky by avoiding bushfire or other natural disasters.