FIGURES from Tesco, Primark, Debenhams and Game will provide investors with a significant insight into the state of the high street this week.

Tesco will report annual profits tomorrow after a year of stiff competition and the group’s worst Christmas in almost 20 years.

Tesco has been losing market share as hard-up consumers switch supermarkets in search of the best value for money.

It saw like-for-like sales increase by 2.5 per cent over the seven-week festive period, much weaker than rivals such as Morrisons and Sainsbury’s.

That was on top of two per cent growth in the third quarter, the worst performance since the last recession.

Analysts at Shore Capital Stockbrokers expect profits to lift five per cent to £3bn, while it is thought that the group will see its till takings exceed £1bn a week for the first time.

Barclays’ annual meeting on Thursday looks likely to be one of mixed emotions for shareholders.

The bank has ridden out the worst of the storm without calling on Government funds – and indeed made £6.1bn in profits last year – as well as boasting a strong start to this year.

Barclays’ balance sheet has also passed stress tests from the Financial Services Authority and boosted its capital position with the sale of its iShares asset management business.

Helped by a recent run of decent earnings from US banks, shares have reached their highest point since last October, trading at well over 200p after plunging to 47.3p in January.

But investors may have some questions over the way Barclays has handled itself in the past year, especially in the way it initially trampled over pre-emption rights in selling a third of itself to Middle East investors last year.

Tomorrow’s results from games retailer Game Group should show a healthy rise in annual profits as the firm benefits from a strong run of new titles and a full-year contribution from its Gamestation acquisition in 2007.

Forecasts put profits at £123.4m for the year to February, compared with £75.5m in the previous 12 months.

A barrage of grim news is expected to surround this week’s Budget as figures are likely to show the UK economy remains deeply mired in recession while the measure of inflation used in wage negotiations slumped below zero.

Data on Friday is predicted to show a decline of 1.5 per cent for the UK economy in the first quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, households are braced for a further slump in the Retail Prices Index (RPI).

Economists predict that figures tomorrow will show that the RPI slumped below zero for the first time in almost 50 years in March.