March 12 (Reuters) - India's annual retail inflation in February rose at a faster-than-expected pace due to higher food prices, government data showed on Tuesday.

Annual retail inflation eased slightly to 5.09% in February from 5.10% in January, but was higher than 5.02% forecast by a Reuters poll of 42 economists.

Food inflation, which accounts for nearly half of the overall consumer price basket, rose 8.66% in February, compared with a 8.30% rise in January.

COMMENTARY:

THAMASHI DE SILVA, ASSISTANT INDIA ECONOMIST, CAPITAL ECONOMICS, LONDON "Food price inflation edged up last month, which probably offset a drop in energy inflation. Looking ahead, we think that food price inflation will drop back only slowly over the coming months.

That means headline inflation will remain within the RBI's 2%-6% tolerance band but only gradually drop to the central bank's 4% long-term target by the end of the second quarter.

We think the RBI will still take a few more months to pivot towards policy loosening. We expect the central bank to start cutting rates in the third quarter."

SUVODEEP RAKSHIT, SENIOR ECONOMIST, KOTAK INSTITUTIONAL EQUITIES, MUMBAI "February CPI inflation print does not add to any further worries. We expect the inflation trajectory to remain around 4.5%-5% in FY2025, with a sharp base effect led dip to around 3% in the second quarter."

(Reporting by Rama Venkat, Kashish Tandon; Editing by Sonia Cheema)