India's consumer inflation is expected to have picked up in July after easing for three straight months, with food prices back on the rise, but is expected to remain well below the central bank's target. The consumer price index, the main policy target of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), likely rose 1.87 percent in July from a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll of economists, compared with an increase of 1.54 percent in June.

Employees sort pieces of cloth at the Estee garment factory in Tirupur, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu June 19, 2013. Mansi Thapliyal | Reuters

The wholesale price index likely rose 1.3 percent in July, after four months of easing. In June, WPI rose 0.9 percent. The wholesale price data will be released around 0630 GMT on Monday, followed by consumer prices around 1200 GMT. Bountiful monsoon rains this year are expected to lead to another bumper harvest, further dampening food prices, which contribute near 50 percent of the consumer price index. Retail food prices had contracted for two months through June from a year earlier.

RBI under pressure