India's economic growth slowed to 6.7 percent in the financial year to March 2009 from nine percent a year earlier,
hit by the global downturn but still beating many analysts' forecasts.

Asia's third-largest economy grew by 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 8.6 percent in the same year-earlier period.

The performance surprised many analysts, who had expected growth to be about five percent in the fourth quarter and in the range of 6.0 to 6.5 percent for the full year.

The figures came as a boost to the newly elected Congress-led government, which has said it will make reviving growth the top priority even at the risk of hiking India's large fiscal deficit.

The government is hoping to revive growth to around nine percent, at which Asia's third-largest economy was expanding annually before the global financial crisis hit.

The government says it needs such growth levels to lift hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty.