MUMBAI, Feb 14 Reuters The Indian rupee was poised to open higher against the U.S. dollar, tracking a broad pullback on the currency in the leadup to key U.S. inflation data due later on Tuesday.

The nondeliverable forward market indicated an opening of around 82.60 for the rupee compared with 82.7175 in the previous session.

Intraday position takers were not likely to chase the USDINR pair lower at open, a spot trader at a Mumbaibased bank said.

The overnight risk of the U.S. data and India39;s surprise on inflation would mean little followthrough after the open, he added.

India39;s inflation rate rose to 6.52 in January from 5.72 in the previous month well above the 5.9 estimate of economists polled by Reuters and breaching the Reserve Bank of India39;s upper target limit of 6 for the first time since October.

The big surprise clouds RBI39;s outlook, Barclays chief India economist Rahul Bajoria said in a note to clients.

The RBI39;s hawkish rhetoric was a surprise for the market last week, but its position has been validated. We see risks of another rate hike in April, Bajoria said.

The dollar index inched lower in Asia to 103.20, adding to Monday39;s pullback.

Asian currencies were mostly higher ahead of data that is expected to show that U.S. inflation had eased.

Today will be totally dominated by the U.S. CPI release, where the scope for market surprises is high, ING Bank said in a note.

Federal Reserve officials have continued to push their hawkish…