CORRECTED: March quarter current account gap 3.6 percent of GDP

(Corrects figures for balance of payments in 4th, 5th paragraphs)

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's March quarter current account deficit was $18.1 billion, or 3.6 percent of GDP, lower than expected and below the $21.7 billion deficit a year earlier, the Reserve Bank of India said on Thursday.

A Reuters poll had forecast the March quarter current account deficit at $21.59 billion, or 4.4 percent of GDP.

The current account gap for the full fiscal year that ended in March 2013 was $87.8 billion, which was 4.8 percent of GDP, compared with $78.2 billion a year earlier.

The balance of payments for the January-March quarter was a $2.68 billion surplus, compared with a $5.7 billion deficit a year earlier.

For fiscal year 2012/13, the balance of payments surplus was $3.83 billion, compared with a deficit of $12.8 billion a year earlier.

(Reporting by Mumbai Treasury Team; Editing by Tony Munroe)