#India retained its position as the world’s fastest-growing economy, registering a #GDP rate of 7.9% for the January-March 2016 quarter, up from 7.3% the previous quarter, according to data released by the government on Tuesday.

By comparison, the world’s number two economy, China, saw growth slowing to 6.7% for the 2016 January-March quarter, the slowest posted by the world’s second largest economy in seven years.

India’s numbers were better than analysts’ estimates. A Reuters survey of economists expected India’s GDP to have grown 7.5 per cent between January and March.

India’s GDP rate for 2015-1016 was 7.6%.

Speaking about the analysts’ estimates earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that such growth, in a global slowdown environment, “has a potential to pick up even more.”

Moody’s Investor Service said earlier that a recovery in private investment is needed if India’s growth has to last.

“Combined with the fact that external demand is likely to remain lacklustre, a sustained improvement in domestic private investment would be required for the growth momentum to be sustained,” the rating agency’s analysts wrote in a note