India's current account deficit widens in Oct-Dec - RBI

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's current account deficit widened to $7.9 billion, or 1.4 percent of gross domestic product, in the October-December quarter from the same period a year earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a statement on Thursday.

That compared with a deficit of $7.1 billion, or 1.4 percent of GDP in the same quarter of 2015, and a deficit of $3.4 billion, or 0.6 percent the GDP in the July-September quarter, according to the RBI data.

Analysts said the deficit widened because of higher imports, but was still on track to stay relatively muted, at around one percent of GDP for the full year ending March.

Meanwhile, the balance of payments for October-December notched a deficit of $1.2 billion compared with a surplus of $4.1 billion a year ago, the RBI data showed.

(Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Rafael Nam)