MUMBAI, July 31 Reuters The Indian rupee will be looking to recover on Monday, tracking the move higher in Asian peers on betterthanexpected China data.

Nondeliverable forwards indicate the rupee will inch up to the U.S. dollar at open from 82.2475 in the previous session. The domestic currency on Friday had its worst session in just under two months.

With Asian currencies doing well to begin the week and risk holding up, the rupee will be hoping for a mini recovery, a forex trader at a bank said.

Kunal Kurani, associate vice president at Mecklai Financial, expects the USDINR in a range of 81.8082.30 this week, with moves in the Chinese yuan and highimpact U.S. data considered to be the important variables.

U.S. ISM manufacturing and services data is due this week, alongside the private payrolls and nonfarm payrolls readings. The data comes after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell left the door open for a rate hike at the September meeting. Investors, however, are not convinced that another hike will be needed.

Data out on Friday supported investor expectations that the Fed rate hike cycle is over. The U.S. June quarter Employment Cost Index rose 1.0 quarteronquarter compared with 1.2 pace in the JanuaryMarch period. The annual rate slowed to 4.5 from 4.8.

The offshore yuan rose to 7.14 to the dollar, helped by the China PMI reading and another daily fix by the country39;s central bank that indicated support for the currency.

The People39;s Bank of China set the…