Inflation easing to 7-7.5% in March: FM

India's headline inflation may ease to 7-7.5% in March and the central bank's latest rate increase will have an impact on inflationary pressures, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday.

"This (rate hike) is good. It will have its impact on inflationary pressures," Mukherjee told reporters, after the central bank raised key policy rates, for the eighth time in a year, by 25 basis points each in its fight to clamp down persistent inflation.

The Reserve Bank of India raised the repo rate , its main lending rate, to 6.75%, and raised the reverse repo rate , or borrowing rate, to 5.75%, in line with expectations in a Reuters poll this week.

The wholesale price index-based inflation , the most widely watched gauge of prices in India, unexpectedly quickened an annual 8.31% in February on higher fuel and manufactured product prices, data showed on Monday, compared with 8.23% in January.

Annual food inflation in early March eased to 9.42% from 9.52% recorded in the previous week as prices of onions and milk fell, government data showed. But, fuel inflation accelerated, on a jump in coking coal prices, to 12.79% from 9.48% a week earlier.

Central banks across Asia are under pressure to act to stave off inflationary pressures as crude oil prices stay near a 2-½ year high on unrest in the Middle East. China, South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand have raised rates multiple times this year.

The government expects India's GDP to grow 8.6% in the year to end-March, accelerating to around 9% in the next fiscal year.