Expert Views: India's September retail inflation picks up to 3.77

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's retail inflation rate slightly picked up to 3.77 percent in September, government data showed on Friday, driven by higher food and fuel prices and a depreciating rupee.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast September's annual increase in the consumer price index at 4.0 percent, compared with August's 3.69 percent.

TUSHAR ARORA, SENIOR ECONOMIST, HDFC BANK, NEW DELHI

"The story on food has been very much comfortable this year. So much so that it could help mitigate a lot of pain because of the rise in crude prices and a falling rupee.

Going forward, the hike in minimum support prices (MSPs) is an upside risk to headline inflation. However, given that it will take time to expand the procurement capacity in the country, it is more of a risk for the next year and not FY19.

Amid mixed set of indicators, we would keep a close watch on inflation expectations to second-guess the next move on rates from the RBI."

(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan)