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-India's annual retail inflation in July rose to its highest in 15 months due to surging food and vegetable prices, government data showed on Monday.

India's annual retail inflation rose sharply to 7.44% in July from 4.87% the previous month. A Reuters poll of 53 economists had forecast a rate of 6.40%. The figure was the highest since April 2022, when the print was 7.79%.

Food inflation, which accounts for nearly half of the overall consumer price basket, rose at a staggering pace of 11.51% in June as compared with 4.49% in June.

Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised its inflation forecast for the current financial year to 5.4% from 5.1% earlier, citing pressures from food prices. In the July-September quarter, it now sees inflation at 6.2%, significantly higher than the 5.2% earlier forecast.

Cereal inflation in July rose at a faster pace of 13.04% from 12.7% in June. Last month, the Indian government banned export of non-basmati white rice last month, triggering fears of further inflation in global food markets.

Vegetable inflation rose by 37.34% after a fall of 1% in the previous month.