BERLIN Inflation rose in four of six key German states in August, according to data released on Wednesday, casting doubt on a continuation of a national downward trend.

Economists surveyed by Reuters have forecast a harmonised inflation rate for the whole of Germany of 6.3%, easing slightly from 6.5% in July. The national data will be published at 1200 GMT.

However, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, inflation ticked up to 5.9% in August from 5.8% the prior month.

Baden-Wuerttemberg, Brandenburg and Saxony also saw inflation accelerate by as much as 0.4 percentage points.

Data from Bavaria and Hesse showed that inflation eased modestly in those states to 5.9% and 6.0%, respectively.

Bastian Hepperle, economist at Hauck Aufhaeuser Lampe Privatbank, said inflation in Germany was still expected to slow despite the mixed picture.

"The brisk decline in producer and import prices give cause for optimism that the inflationary push will continue to ease in the months ahead," he said.

Price pressures have eased in Europe's largest economy since last year, when an energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war pushed inflation up to a decades-long high of 11.6% in October.

However, inflation remains well above the European Central Bank target of 2% and core inflation, excluding volatile prices like food and energy, has been stubbornly high.

(Reporting by Rachel More and René Wagner, Editing by Friederike Heine)