MUMBAI: The BSE Sensex closed at its lowest level in over 1-1/2-year on Monday on the back of continued worries about Chinese equities.

The Sensex ended 0.44 percent lower to mark its lowest close since June 4, 2014.

The Nifty ended 0.49 percent lower.

Indian consumer inflation likely rose slightly in December, due to higher food costs and increases in fuel duties, a Reuters poll found, pushing prices further away from the central bank’s medium-term target.

Retail inflation is expected to have risen 5.6 percent annually in the last month of 2015, according to a survey of 33 economists, higher than November’s 5.41 percent. The data will be released 1200 GMT on Tuesday.

With inflation running above the RBI’s March 2017 target of 5 percent, future interest rate cuts will likely be hard to come by.

The RBI left policy rates unchanged in December. It holds its next policy meeting in early February.

“We think that the window for further easing following the cumulative 125 basis points of rate cuts over the past 12 months has now shut,” wrote Shilan Shah, India economist at Capital Economics.

“Further ahead, a potentially large rise in public sector wages would add to the RBI’s difficult task in meeting its medium-term inflation targets.”