THE country's meat price inflation reached 16.8 percent in 2021, the highest annual price increase of any major food item since 2012, also surpassing the highest price inflation of rice at 11 percent back in 2011, according to the Department of Finance (DoF).

'The 16.8-percent meat price inflation last year accounted for 1.1 percentage points to the 4.4-percent overall inflation. Had meat price inflation been half as high, the upper level of the 2- to 4-percent inflation target range would not have been breached,' the DoF said.