Indian inflation edges up

India's inflation edged upward, official data on Friday showed, but analysts said this week's US interest rate cut made it more likely the Indian central bank could follow suit.
Annual inflation quickened to 3.83 percent for the week ended January 12 from 3.79 percent a week earlier, according to the wholesale price index, India's main cost-of-living monitor.
Inflation stood at 6.15 percent in the same period the previous year.
Inflation rose on the back of rises in manufactured goods and food prices such as rice and maize, the government data showed.
But it remained below the Reserve Bank of India's ceiling of close to five percent for the current fiscal year to March 31, 2008.
Analysts had expected the Indian central bank -- wary about the impact of sharp rises in global oil and commodity prices -- to keep its interest rates on hold this year.
But anxiety over a global slowdown triggered by a possible US recession and the sharp US rate cut had changed the picture, they said.
The US Federal Reserve's unprecedented three-fourths of a point cut in its base short-term interest rate to 3.50 percent Tuesday was aimed at stimulating an ailing US economy, battered by a severe housing slump and tight credit.