Canadians plan to spend about $900 each this holiday season, a telephone survey conducted for the Bank of Nova Scotia suggests.

“Canadians should be in a relatively festive shopping mood,” Aron Gampel, Scotiabank’s deputy chief economist, said today in a release. “The economy retains fairly good momentum, led by the resource-rich regions in the West, East and the North.”

Gampel said job gains and buoyant housing markets are helping to support consumer spending, although purchasing power is being pinched by rising energy and borrowing costs.

Of those people surveyed who intend to buy gifts this holiday season, clothing was the most popular gift idea (33%), followed by toys (22%) and electronics (17%).

Gift cards and money were also high on the giving list, at 12% and 11%, respectively.

The poll suggests that people in the Atlantic provinces will spend the most on the holiday season, with 30% planning to spend a $1,000 or more.

Overall, consumers in Quebec are planning to spend the least, with 25% expecting to spend less than $200.

The survey was conducted for Scotiabank (TSX:BNS) using Decima’s TeleVox system. A total of 1,022 phone interviews were completed between November 3 and 7.

The statistical results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.