Colombian consumer prices rose 0.42 percent in December, the national statistics agency said.

Annual inflation slowed to 3.73 percent, according to the report posted on the agency’s website today. Economists expected monthly inflation of 0.3 percent and annual inflation of 3.6 percent, according to the median estimates of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Annual inflation breached the upper limit of the central bank’s target range in October for the first time since 2009. Colombia targets inflation of 2 percent to 4 percent.

The central bank held the overnight interest rate (CORRRMIN) at 4.75 percent Dec. 16, after raising it a quarter point in November.

Inflation expectations are increasingly dominated by supply shocks related to bad weather, which the central bank lacks “appropriate tools” to deal with, the bank said Dec. 29.

Floods this year and in 2010 damaged crops and choked off Farmers’ supply routes, pushing food prices higher. Heavier- than-average rain, caused by the La Nina weather pattern, will last through the first quarter of next year, the government has said.

Fourth quarter data show signs the economy may be cooling, after growing 7.7 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, its fastest pace since 2006.