In the last quarter of the year to March, India clocked a record 9.3 percent growth driven mainly by a healthy 5.5 percent increase in agriculture, data released by the government's Central Statistical Organisation showed.

The better than expected performance in the last quarter was also due to healthy growth in manufacturing and services, it said.

The farm sector, which accounts for about a quarter of India's GDP, also boosted India's annual GDP figure, growing by 3.9 percent for the year compared to a meagre 0.7 percent in 2004-05, the data showed.

The figure is close to the government's target of four percent growth.

"Agriculture has shown improvement," said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy head of India's Planning Commission, which helps frame economic policies for the country.

There were no signs of overheating of the economy and all economic macro-indicators were in "reasonably okay shape," he was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.

The manufacturing sector grew by 9.0 percent and financial services by 9.7 percent in 2005-2006 compared to 8.1 percent and 9.2 percent a year ago.

In February, India's Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram had forecast that Asia's third-largest economy would grow by 8.1 percent in the fiscal year ended March.

In 2004-2005, India's economy had clocked 7.5 percent growth.