节约还是消费?欧洲人节日季节作选择

Europeans head into a grim holiday season, as governments cut spending and recession fears mount for 2012. Austerity is the byword in some of the countries hardest hit by Europe's debt crisis, but others are sending out the old year with a final, celebratory bash.

欧洲民众正进入一个黯淡的节日季节，因为政府在削减开支而且担心2012年经济会陷入衰退。在受欧洲债务危机冲击最严重的一些国家，"紧缩"一词成了一个标语。

Shoppers crowd the holiday window displays outside the Galleries Lafayette, the famous department store in central Paris. Most are juggling shopping bags filled with holiday gifts. Thirty-five-year-old Alexandra de Brito is among the few who is bare-handed.

在法国巴黎市中心著名的老佛爷百货店的节日展示橱窗外，挤满了购物人群。多数人手上都提着装满了节日礼品的购物袋。35岁的亚历山德拉·德布里托是为数不多的两手空空的人之一。

De Brito says she will not be buying any presents this Christmas time - even though she makes a good salary. Instead, she will make her family a good Christmas dinner and buy them presents during the after-Christmas sales. That is because the cost of everything is going up, she says - everything except salaries.

德布里托说，虽然她的薪水不菲，但圣诞节时她不会买任何礼物。她会给家人做一顿丰盛的节日晚餐，然后在圣诞节之后的商家打折期间给家人买礼物。她说，因为所有物价都在上涨，只有工资没涨。

Across Europe, citizens like De Brito are pulling in their belts this holiday season - in line with their governments, who are introducing austerity measures to combat the region's sovereign debt and banking crisis. In some of the hardest-hit countries, like Portugal, Greece and Spain, local governments have cut their holiday budgets and dimmed their Christmas lights.

在欧洲各地，像德布里托这样的居民这个节日季节正在勒紧裤腰带，和他们的政府一样。政府正在实行紧缩措施，以对抗该地区的主权债务和银行危机。在葡萄牙、希腊和西班牙等一些受创最严重的国家，政府已经削减了节日预算，并调暗了圣诞节灯光。

But the picture is more mixed in countries like France, which are still teetering on the brink of the eurozone crisis. Thousands of people protested in Paris and other French cities this last week against new government austerity measures.

但在法国等国家，情况更多样化一些。这些国家仍处于欧元区危机的边缘。过去这个星期，巴黎和法国其它城市的数千名民众走上街头示威，抗议新的政府紧缩措施。

Twenty-five-year-old student Pierre Dubovatsky joined the Paris demonstrations.

25岁的学生皮埃尔·杜博瓦特斯基参加了巴黎的示威活动。

"I am afraid for my future," he said. "I do not have enough money to live [on] ... As things are difficult and I do not live with my family, I will just use the little money I have to get my family in the south of France, and this will be how I'll be celebrating Christmas. There will be no presents, just getting together."

杜博瓦特斯基说:"我担心我的未来。我没有足够的钱生活......情况很艰难，我没有和家人住在一起，我会用仅有的这一点点钱回到法国南部的家人那里......这将是我庆祝圣诞节的方式。没有礼物，只是家人团聚。"

British tourists Paul and Anita Scotney, eyeing a window display at a Cartier's diamond store on the elegant Champs Elysees, are also worried.

英国游客保罗和安妮塔·斯科特尼在优雅的香榭丽舍大街上的一家卡地亚钻石店橱窗外驻足观看。他们也感到忧虑。