Expert views: Indian consumer inflation accelerates; factory output jumps

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's annual consumer price inflation quickened to 4.41 percent in September from a year earlier, compared to an annualised 3.66 percent in August, government data showed on Monday.

That was slightly above analyst forecasts for consumer inflation of 4.3 percent.

At the same time separate data showed industrial output grew a better-than-expected 6.4 percent in August compared with a downwardly revised 4.1 percent growth in July.

TIRTHANKAR PATNAIK, INDIA STRATEGIST, MIZUHO BANK, MUMBAI

"The CPI number is largely on par, although food inflation has marginally gone up, which was also expected given onion and pulses prices had gone up.

"Given that there was a sharp fall in last year's September number, this time the positive base effect has worn off.

"We don't expect any change in RBI's policy stance."

SONAL VARMA, INDIA ECONOMIST AT NOMURA, MUMBAI

"Within CPI there is some pressure building up in food price inflation, but still it's lower than our expectation.

"IIP (industrial output) is a surprise and there are some volatile components in the data like cable and inflated rubber.

"Overall IIP number has been inching higher and this could be a bit exaggerated. The trend of recovery in growth continues, and macro environment is good with inflation under control. We don't expect any change in the RBI's stance."

(Reporting by Suvashree Choudhury; Compiled by Rafael Nam)