NEW DELHI, July 24: India’s annual inflation rate has eased back to 11.89 per cent, defying expectations it would cross the 12 per cent mark, according to the latest government data released on Thursday.

The figure for the week ended July 12 was down marginally from the 11.91 per cent a week earlier, according to the Wholesale Price Index, India’s most closely watched cost-of-living monitor.

Analysts had expected the rate would jump to just over 12 per cent.

The rate is still seen as too high -- meaning further monetary tightening by the Reserve bank of India, which meets next week, cannot be ruled out.

“We expect the RBI to continue with its bias of monetary tightening as the current level of inflation is far too high compared to its comfort zone, and has not shown any definite sign of peaking,” said Siddhartha Sanyal, economist with brokerage Edelweiss Securities.

Price rises in India have overshadowed better-than-expected growth of 9.0 per cent in the past fiscal year.Economists expect growth in Asia’s third-largest economy to slow this year on higher borrowing costs and tough global financial conditions. The prime minister has projected growth of more than eight per cent.—AFP