Wholesale prices in India likely stayed flat at 6.6 per cent in February compared to the year-ago period after falling to a multi-year low of 6.62 per cent in January 2013, according to an NDTV Profit poll.
The participants were Yes Bank (6.53 per cent), Nomura (6.59 per cent), Axis Bank (6.70 per cent), Credit Suisse (6.20 per cent), Deutsche Bank (6.60 per cent), HSBC (6.30 per cent), ICRA (6.80 per cent), Moody's Analytics (6.80 per cent), RBS (6.67 per cent), Standard Chartered (6.70 per cent), and UBS (6.50 per cent).
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and fuel prices, has been easing since September 2012 and may have remained in check at 4.1-4.2 per cent.
At 6.6 per cent, inflation is still above the central bank's perceived comfort level of around 5 per cent as it comes under pressure to shore up economic growth.
On Tuesday, the government released the annual consumer price inflation figure, which accelerated to 10.91 per cent in February from the previous month. Food prices for consumers rose 13.73 per cent in February.
India's retail inflation is the highest among the BRICS group of emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Although the pick-up in retail inflation has tempered expectations for an aggressive monetary easing, investors are betting a sluggish economy will force the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut rates by another 25 basis points at its upcoming policy review on March 19. The central bank gives more weight to the wholesale price index data while setting policy.
The headline inflation rate, which averaged around 9 per cent since 2010, began easing last October and has since averaged just over 7 per cent.
Sticky inflation prevented the RBI from easing monetary policy for much of last year, and after cutting its key repo rate this January it struck a cautious note on further moves.
With inputs from Reuters
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