Is the UK in the early stages of deflation?

The short answer is no, but a number of unknown factors means even an outside risk needs to be taken seriously

Blink and you'll miss it. That sums up what the experts think about inflation turning negative in the UK for the first time since 1960 - a time when Dwight Eisenhower was the US president and before the pre-fame Beatles had played a single note in Hamburg.

That year, the period when the annual cost of living was falling proved to be brief, and the expectation is that it will be this time too.

A cut in average earnings growth from 2% to 1% would "suggest the economy was in a downward wage-price spiral