Inflation may now be fading as a phenomenon, and a policy problem, in Australia. But one component of the price index that's displaying resilience is financial services' prices.For a year or so now the Australian Bureau of Statistics has included financial and insurance services as a sub-set of the quarterly consumer price index.In the December 2008 quarter this fell 0.3 per cent, in line with the overall decline in the index. Over the year to December 2008, though, the price of financial and insurance services increased by 7.0 per cent, or roughly double the overall increase in consumer prices.About half the index item is accounted for by "deposit and loan facilities", which declined by 1.9 per cent over the last quarter but increased by 10.8 per cent over the year. This item in turn reflects changes in interest rates and to some extent reflects changes in banks' margins.A bit less than half the index item comprises "other financial services", meaning fee-based services. These increased by 1.1 per cent over the quarter but only 0.8 per cent over the year.