MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's annual consumer price inflation eased to a lower-than-expected 3.41 percent in December, its lowest level in more than two years, helped by a sharp cooling in food prices, government data showed on Thursday.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected annual retail inflation to come in at 3.57 percent last month, compared with 3.63 percent in November.
PUNEET PAL, HEAD OF FIXED INCOME, BNP PARIBAS MUTUAL FUND, MUMBAI
"The key risks to inflation is primarily the commodity prices especially oil prices. Apart from that I don't expect much risks with food prices expected to remain on the lower side.
"The RBI will focus both on inflation and growth and I expect a 25 bps rate cut, however I am not sure whether it will happen in February or April"
(Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury in MUMBAI and Samantha Kareen Nair, Darshana Sankaranaman, and Arnab Paul in BENGALURU)