NEW DELHI, Nov 5: India's inflation rate spiked higher on Friday and analysts forecast it would climb further on the back of a government hike in fuel prices aimed at offsetting the surge in global oil costs.

Inflation, which was just 4.32 per cent in April, jumped by more than a quarter of a percentage point to hit 7.38 per cent in the week to October 23, data showed, snapping a month-long downward trend.

The inflation figures came a day after the left-backed Congress government hiked oil and cooking gas prices to align them with global prices and brake falling profits at state-run oil refiners.

However, the price hikes in a country which imports 70 percent of its crude needs drew swift flak from the government's leftist allies, key to the party's survival in parliament, who said it would hit the "common people."

The increases in fuel prices were among the biggest in years. Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said the hike would bridge the gap between the price at which state-owned firms buy foreign oil and the level at which they sell to domestic consumers. -AFP