Food inflation tends to be 'transitory' if monetary policy is restrictive as it currently is, a member of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said on Monday, adding that he was not surprised by the July retail inflation print.

"My view has been that there is much greater urgency in bringing inflation to within the band than there is to bringing it to the centre of the band," MPC member Jayanth Varma told the Reuters Global Markets Forum (GMF).

Led by vegetables, food inflation in India soared to an over three-year high of 11.5% in July. This pushed retail inflation to 7.44%, above the Reserve Bank of India's comfort band.

Varma said rural demand was an issue, and a poor monsoon was as much of a growth shock as it was an inflation shock.

"So we need to watch this carefully," he added.

(Join GMF, a chat room hosted on Refinitiv Messenger: https://tinyurl.com/yyr3x6pu) (Reporting by Savio Shetty and Divya Chowdhury in Mumbai; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)