Inflation likely hit 2012 high in June: Reuters Poll BANGALORE | Sun Jul 15, 2012 2:34pm IST

(Reuters) - Soaring food costs likely pushed Indian inflation to its highest lev el this year in June, a Reuters poll showed, suggesting the Reserve Bank of Indi a (RBI) will remain hawkish on monetary policy. The survey of 30 economists showed wholesale prices rising by an annual 7.62 per cent in June, slightly up from 7.55 in May. Forecasts were from 7.20 percent to 8.20 percent, narrower than the range in las t month's poll. Despite inflation falling below 7 percent between January and March, an upturn i n prices since then has diminished already tepid expectations for further rate c uts from the RBI to bolster economic growth. Although food prices only account for around 14 percent of the country's wholesa le price index, they have a significant impact on the direction of overall infla tion due to their volatile nature. Expensive oil and chronically low global stocks of some key grains have put food inflation firmly back on the economic agenda this year, with the late arrival o f monsoon rains set to put further pressure on prices in India. "There is really nothing to indicate that food prices would have come off from t he May levels," said Jyotinder Kaur, an economist at HDFC Bank. The annual monsoon rains, which typically arrive in June, are a key source of wa ter for 55 percent of farmland in India, where agriculture accounts for about 15 percent of the nearly $2 trillion economy. "We don't see any flattening in inflationary pressures. It will just keep moving between 7 and 8 (percent) for the whole year," said Sumita Kale, chief economis t at Indicus Analytics. Only nine of the economists polled said inflation would ease in June from the mo nth before. WIDESPREAD CALLS India's inflation, the highest among the so-called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russi a, India and China, averaged 9.52 percent through 2010 and 2011, and has failed to ease much despite aggressive interest rate hikes by the RBI. Conversely, inflation in China has dropped to a two-year low of 3 percent and is expected to ease even further in coming months. This created room for the People's Bank of China to cut rates for the second tim e in weeks last Thursday in an effort to boost growth that is at its lowest leve l in nearly three years. In contrast, the RBI at its June meet resisted widespread calls to cut rates and boost growth in Asia's third largest economy, which dropped to a nine-year low in the quarter to March. "Headline inflation will have to moderate from the May levels of 7.55 percent or stabilize at that level for the RBI to convincingly cut rates in the near term, " said HDFC's Kaur.