Pre-Christmas discounting is deep, broad and set to get more aggressive as desperate retailers compete for consumers’ cash, according to an annual review of high street sales.

December has been notable for a raft of pre-Christmas sales from the likes of Marks and Spencer and Tesco. Ernst & Young, the consultants, found that price cuts were “deeper than ever before” – with average prices on more than 1,000 goods 37.1 per cent lower than the full ticket price compared with 34.6 per cent at this time last year.