India's fiscal deficit at $70 bln in 2008/09 - govt

NEW DELHI, May 29 (Reuters) - India's fiscal deficit INFISC=ECI for the 2008/09 fiscal year that ended on March 31 was 3.3 trillion rupees ($70 billion), the government said in a statement on Friday.

The deficit is equivalent to 6.07 percent of India's gross domestic product (GDP), according to a Reuters calculation, and was slightly higher than a target of 6 percent.

In February, the government had revised upwards its fiscal deficit estimate for the year to 3.27 trillion rupees, equivalent to 6 percent of gross domestic product from an initial estimate of 2.5 percent.

The deficit widened after the government announced extra spending of close to 1.5 trillion rupees to cover a farm debt scheme, subsidies and steps to stimulate a slowing economy among other measures. ($1=47.1 rupees) (Reporting by Rajkumar Ray; Editing by John Mair)