'Desperate' stores slash prices for Christmas

Retailers are offering their biggest pre-Christmas discounts as the credit crisis takes its toll on High Street spending.

Prices are being slashed at big-name stores, including Argos, BHS, Debenhams, Halfords, Toys R Us and Boots, with 80 per cent off the cost of some gifts in a "desperate attempt" to woo reluctant shoppers.

Figures compiled for The Daily Telegraph by accountancy firm Ernst & Young highlight, for the first time, the scale of the discounting.

According to the report, the biggest chains are on track to knock an average of 36 per cent off all prices in the run up to Christmas.

While the discounts will be warmly welcomed by millions of families, they are proof that the consumer economy is heading into a severe slow down, experts have warned.