Rise in bank charges
Banks charges are far higher for overdrafts and packaged accounts than they were a year ago, according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR).
CEBR says that it discovered a rise of around 16 per cent in these banking charges for the past year when analysing the reason for the difference in estimates for increases in inflation made by the retail price index (RPIX) and the consumer price index (CPI).
Breaking down these figures – the RPIX says inflation increased by only 0.4 per cent, the CPI said it increased it rose by over 100 per cent – the CEBR found that the reason for the difference was the rapid increase in the cost of banking.
'In the CPI for August, the inflation rate for other financial services reached 11 per cent year-on-year,' CEBR explained.
'The Office for National Statistics has told us that this partly reflects increases of 15 per cent to 16 per cent year-on-year in bank overdraft and packaged current account charges.'
The huge difference in the two estimates arose because what are classified as 'other financial services' – which include bank overdraft and packaged current account charges – are considered ten times more important in the CPI than they are in the RPIX.
According to the CPI, inflation is higher than the Bank of England would want it to be, increasing the prospect of a cut in interest rates. | 
