February retail inflation eases to 5.18 pct - govt

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's annual consumer price inflation eased to 5.18 percent in February from a year ago, helped by a fall in food prices, after edging up for six straight months, government data showed on Monday.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast retail inflation to edge down to 5.60 percent in February compared with 5.69 percent in January.

Retail food inflation in February eased to 5.30 percent, compared with 6.85 percent recorded in the previous month.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Malini Menon)