India's annual retail inflation jumped to 4.82% in August from 4.45% in July, driven by higher food and fuel prices and strengthening a case for an interest rate hike in October.
The August print is marginally higher than a 4.80% inflation that the economists were expecting in a Reuters poll and marking a third straight month when it was above the Reserve Bank of India's 4% medium-term target .
The central bank left its benchmark policy rate unchanged at 5.25% last month, but minutes of its last monetary policy meeting showed that some RBI officials, including Governor Sanjay Malhotra, favoured a rate hike if inflation spread across segments.
The rate-hike concerns have intensified over the past month as a sustained rise in global oil prices threatens to add to inflation pressures, with Brent crude futures near $108 a barrel.
India imports nearly 85% of its oil needs, more than half of it from the Middle East, where the U.S.-Iran war has caused major supply disruptions.
Still, Asia's third-largest economy continues to be an outlier among regional peers such as Indonesia and the Philippines that have raised rates in response to higher energy prices and currency volatility.
{{/usCountry}}Still, Asia's third-largest economy continues to be an outlier among regional peers such as Indonesia and the Philippines that have raised rates in response to higher energy prices and currency volatility.
{{/usCountry}}India's food inflation climbed to 5.95% in August from 5.52%in July, on the back of weak monsoon showers, with sharp increases in prices of staples such as ginger, onion and garlic.
Transport inflation accelerated to 4.60% in August from 4.43% in the previous month.