Consumer prices last year rose at a much faster pace than government had predicted even as inflation eased to its lowest monthly rate in December, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

The country’s headline inflation clocked in at 3.6 percent last month, the lowest posted for last year. It also slower compared with the 4.2 percent in November, but slightly quicker than 3.5 percent in December 2020.

December marked the first time that inflation fell below the 4.0 percent level in 2021. But the slowdown in the final month was enough to bring down the full-year average within government’s target.

Inflation climbed to a three-year high at 4.5 percent in 2021, missing the Duterte administration’s goal of 2.0 percent to 4.0 percent. The annual print is also well above the 2.6 percent seen in 2019.

National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa has blamed the high prices of meat products particular pork for the above target inflation seen last year.

“The price of meat, particularly pork, heavily contributed to our full-year inflation, although it already decelerated in the previous months, but for the whole year, it is the biggest contributor,” Mapa told reporters.

In addition, Mapa said that transport, particularly fuels, also caused inflation to inch up further in 2021.

Meanwhile, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said that slower food prices, which decreased to 3.2 percent in December from 4.1 percent in the previous month, drove inflation to its lowest monthly rate for last year.

In particular, vegetable inflation fell to -10 percent from -1.8 percent, while fish inflation also decelerated to seven percent from 7.9 percent in the same period.

However, meat inflation slightly increased to 11.3 percent in December from 10.7 percent in November 2021, partly due to the increase in pork inflation to 17.9 percent from 17.3 percent.

“With the National Capital Region (NCR) and the neighboring provinces of Cavite, Rizal, and Bulacan now under alert level 3, it is important to ensure affordable food prices and the continued delivery of goods and services,” Chua said.

“To temper inflation in meat, especially pork, the government is working to increase local supply and ensure regular unloading of stocks from cold storages” he added.

According to Chua, local supply needs to be augmented by pork imports through increased utilization of the pork minimum access volume (MAV) plus under lowered tariffs under Executive Order (EO) Nos. 133 and 134.

As of Dec. 27, 2021, only around 46 percent or 60,000 MT out of 130,000 MT of the MAV plus with import certificates was utilized.

To help ensure stable pork supply throughout this year, the National Economic and Development Authority reiterated its recommendation to extend the validity of EO No. 133 to December 2022.

Chua also called for the distribution of more imported pork outside Metro Manila, noting that meat is among the top three drivers of inflation in 14 out of 16 regions outside the NCR in December 2021.

Non-food inflation also decreased to 3.7 percent in December from 4.1 percent in November.

This was primarily driven by slower transport inflation, which fell to 6.1 percent from 8.8 percent as the decline in international crude oil prices translated to a decrease in local prices of petroleum products.