Luxury fashion retailer Burberry Hong Kong has launched an unprecedented deep discounting campaign to move stock in the peak Christmas retail period.

The British brand has reduced the prices on some lines by 50 per cent, the biggest reductions since the Individual Visit Scheme for Mainland Chinese tourists was launched in 2003.

Typically, the highest discounts in the pre-Christmas sale is 30 per cent on limited lines.

It is rare for high end brands like Burberry to offer such large discounts – but rivals Gucci and Prada have already discounted lines by similar amounts in Hong Kong, where such retailers lack an outlet channel for surplus or end of line stock.

Industry observers say the level of discounting in such a peak retail period reflects the serious challenge faced by luxury retailers since the clampdown on gift giving in the Mainland took effect and the exchange rate fluctuations made it affordable for big spending Chinese travellers to travel to Japan and Europe to shop instead of Hong Kong and Macau.

“A 50 per cent discount is unusual for big luxury brands like Burberry” Hayman Chiu, associate director at Cinda International, told the South China Morning Post.

“The whole luxury industry is doing the same thing right now.”

Burberry’s discounts apply only to a limited proportion of its stock, specifically about 10 styles of handbags and some clothing.