MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's annual consumer inflation nudged up to 5.37 percent in February compared with 5.11 percent in January, government data showed on Thursday, marking a third consecutive month of rising prices.
COMMENTARY
A. PRASANNA, ECONOMIST, ICICI SECURITIES PRIMARY DEALERSHIP LTD, MUMBAI
"CPI is broadly in line with expectations. Food inflation seems to be bit higher than what we anticipated. But that does not change the trajectory of overall inflation going ahead and we think the RBI's goal of 6 percent by January will be achieved.
"We still expect RBI to cut the repo rate by 25 basis points by June before pausing. It is better not to come to conclusion on IIP (industrial output) data as this data will undergo a change in a few months."
(Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Rafael Nam)
