The difference between lending rates and borrowing rates has surged to the highest level in more than three years. 

The Bank of Korea said on Wednesday that an average annual interest rate attached to loans from local commercial banks stood at three-point-69 percent as of January, up by zero-point-07 percentage points from a month earlier. 

It marks the third consecutive month the lending rates went up, following the central bank’s key rate hike in November, and the highest since three-point-86 percent in February of 2015.

The average annual rate banks pay for deposits, however, dropped by zero-point-01 percentage points to one-point-eight percent.