New Delhi: India's annual wholesale price inflation eased in January for the second straight month after touching an eight-month high in November, helped by a softer rise in food and fuel prices, government data showed on Thursday.

Annual wholesale price inflation last month slowed to 2.84 percent from a year earlier, from a provisional 3.58 percent rise in December.

The rise in January compares with a 3.25 percent increase forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

Wholesale food prices in January rose 1.65 percent year-on-year, compared with a 2.91 percent rise a month earlier, the data showed.