Oct 24 (Reuters) - Westlife Foodworld, the

operator of McDonald's restaurants in west and south

India, reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit on

Thursday, hit by sustained weak demand as cost-conscious

customers cut back on spending.

The restaurant operator's consolidated profit after tax

stood at 3.6 million rupees ($42,832.16) for the second quarter

ended Sept. 30, down from 223.7 million rupees a year ago,

according to a regulatory filing.

Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 48.9 million

rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.

($1 = 84.0490 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai and Ashna Teresa

Britto in Bengaluru; Editing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan)