THE speed with which Chancellor George Osborne and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney came out on Tuesday to tell us there was no need to worry about the revelation of plunging UK inflation and the risk of deflation tells us this is a danger well worth the watching.

The degree to which they appeared in tune with each other in their messages would make them firm favourites if anyone were to reinvent the "Mr and Mrs" game show, which attracted nine million viewers during its 1970s heyday, for global finance ministers and central bankers.

It was the same kind of harmony we heard from the pair ahead of the Scottish independence referendum. But that does not mean we should just accept their message on inflation, and the risk of deflation, and put this issue out of our minds.

Mr Carney remained in perfect harmony with the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government on Wednesday, with his comments about tumbling crude oil prices.

He declared: "It is a negative shock to the Scottish economy but it is a negative shock substantially mitigated by the fiscal arrangements in the UK."

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: "Whilst plunging revenues from the North Sea would have financially crippled a separate Scotland, the loss of revenue can be absorbed across the wider UK financial tax base."

The chancellor this week hammered home his view that the inflation-deflation situation in the UK is very different from that in the eurozone.

But is it really that different? In both the UK and eurozone, core inflation is still positive and actually rose in December. And it is energy prices that are driving deflation in the eurozone, or the risk of it in the UK's case.

Mr Osborne on Tuesday declared that the plunge in annual UK consumer prices index (CPI) inflation from one per cent in November to 0.5 per cent in December, matching the May 2000 rate to be the joint-lowest since comparable records began in 1989, was "welcome news". Mr Carney described the inflation figures as "good news".

In a speech the following day, the chancellor claimed the sharp fall in the UK inflation rate should not be feared.

He said: "We should not confuse this welcome news for Britain's households as a result of falling oil prices with the threat of damaging deflation that we see in the eurozone."

Official figures last week showed consumer prices in the eurozone in December were 0.2 per cent lower than in the same month of 2013. This is the first time the eurozone has been in deflationary territory since October 2009.

However, excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, core annual CPI inflation in the eurozone actually edged up from 0.7 per cent in November to 0.8 per cent in December.

In the UK, against a backdrop of supermarket price wars and the resurgence of the discounters in the grocery sector at a time when household finances are stretched, food prices in December were down 1.9 per cent on the same month of 2013. Downward pressure on food prices is also evident in the eurozone inflation figures.

The challenges facing big UK supermarket chains have once again been laid bare in recent days in their trading updates. And Tesco, Sainsbury, and Morrison have all announced big cost-cutting moves.

It says something about the tough sector conditions that Sainsbury, even though its sales in the 12 weeks to January 4 were down 0.7 per cent on the same period a year earlier according to market researcher Kantar, was the best performer among the big supermarket chains. Discounters Aldi and Lidl saw sharp year-on-year rises in sales.

Returning to Mr Osborne's contention that the UK and eurozone are not the same when it comes to the inflation-deflation issue, you could be forgiven for thinking he doth protest too much.

Presumably deflation raises the same dangers, among them the risk that businesses will put off investment and consumers will defer spending in the expectation that things may become cheaper. And, if companies feel inclined to try to cut wages after years of failing to provide their workers with pay rises that got anywhere near the inflation rate in overall terms, we could end up in a vicious downward spiral.

Mr Carney conceded on Tuesday that deflation in the UK was "possible" but insisted the tools were available to ensure it did not become a problem.

In a most curious take on the situation, Mr Osborne declared: "A few months of very low or even negative inflation, driven mainly by external factors, does not, in and of itself, mean that we run the risk of deflation."

Referring to Tuesday's official UK inflation figures, he added: "Core inflation...remains relatively stable and indeed rose slightly."

But core inflation also rose in the eurozone in December.

So why is it that deflation in the eurozone is "damaging", while the risk of "negative inflation" in the UK, to use Mr Osborne's terminology, is not a matter for concern? Surely deflation is deflation, whether it is mainland European or British.