Shops will have to keep on slashing prices

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The bleak forecast was delivered as another high street chain went into administration.

Designer clothing company USC became the latest casualty of the decline in consumer spending, following childrenswear chain Adams, which confirmed it had called in administrators.

The huge crowds which gathered for Christmas sales made the high street look healthy but shoppers have spent cautiously, according to the British Retail Consortium.Spokesman Richard Dodd said: "It's good news that lots of shoppers are out there, and that the sales and promotions that retailers are using are creating valid interest. But it will still prove to be the case when the figures are in that as a whole it has been a poor December."

As shoppers continue to worry about worsening economic conditions, retailers will be forced to continue to slash prices, Mr Dodd said. "People are going to go on being worried about the housing market and about jobs and personal finances," he said.

"They will be reluctant to spend so retailers will have to go on reducing prices substantially."

Adams and USC joined a string of firms which have collapsed recently including Woolworths, MFI and Zavvi.

It was predicted today that Japanese manufacturers including Sony, Canon Europe and Sanyo Electric intend to raise the prices of their electronic goods in the new year.