Financial services get more expensive

Over the year to December 2008, the price of financial and insurance services increased by 7%, or roughly double the overall increase in consumer prices.

Deposit and loan prices declined by 1.9% over the last quarter, but increased by 10.8% over the year. This reflects changes in interest rates and to some extent, reflects changes in banks' margins. Other financial services, meaning fee-based services, increased by 1.1% over the quarter but only 0.8% over the year.