India CPI Ticks Up

India’s consumer inflation is expected to have picked up in July after easing for three straight months, with food prices back on the rise, but is expected to remain well below the central bank’s target, Reuters reported. The consumer price index, the main policy target of the Reserve Bank of India, likely rose 1.87% in July from a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll of economists, compared with an increase of 1.54% in June. The wholesale price index likely rose 1.3% in July, after four months of easing. In June, WPI rose 0.9%. Bountiful monsoon rains this year are expected to lead to another bumper harvest, further dampening food prices, which contribute near 50% of the consumer price index. Retail food prices had contracted for two months through June from a year earlier. Disinflationary pressures allowed the RBI to cut its main policy rate early this month by 25 basis points to 6%, the lowest since November 2010.