The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has projected the inflation rate this month to range between 7.8 percent and 8.6 percent.

"Upward price pressures for the month are expected to emanate from higher electricity rates, an uptick in the prices of agricultural commodities, elevated meat, and fish products, and higher liquefied petroleum gas prices," the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the falling petroleum and rice prices as well as the peso appreciation may contribute to easing price pressures for the month, the BSP added.

The central bank continues to monitor closely emerging price developments to enable timely intervention that could help in preventing further price pressures, following the BSP's price stability mandate.

RCBC: High prices to linger

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the average 8 percent inflation rate may linger until early February 2023 or shortly before the anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on 24 February.

"Other major catalysts for inflation are the global crude prices which reached three-week highs recently as China eased some of its Covid-19 restrictions that led to some pick up in global oil and other commodity prices, but still near one-year lows," the economist added.

"However, the recent storm/flood damage because of the shear line could temporarily lead to higher food prices and overall inflation," Ricafort said.

Chief economist Domini Velasquez of China Banking Corp. also told Daily Tribune that December inflation likely set a new high of 8.2 percent as consumer prices continue to tick up.

"On the bright side though, month-on-month, we likely saw. reduced momentum of 0.5-percent growth in prices compared with October and November's month-on-month inflation of 0.9 percent," she added.