Expert views - India's consumer inflation accelerates to 5.61 pct in Dec

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's annual consumer price inflation edged up for a fifth consecutive month to 5.61 percent in December from a year earlier, matching analyst expectations on the back of rising food prices, government data showed on Tuesday.

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COMMENTARY

SIDDHARTHA SANYAL, INDIA ECONOMIST, BARCLAYS, MUMBAI

"Broadly, the inflation trajectory looks benign going ahead.

"Food price management will be key going ahead. We expect food inflation to stay anchored given that it is not widespread, and is a factor of only a few food items.

"There is a fresh weakness in global commodity prices and we expect some pass through of that in lower oil prices in India. We continue to expect RBI to cut the repo rate two more times by a total of 50 basis points by mid-2016."

(Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury and Karen Rebelo; Compiled by Rafael Nam)