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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.IANS

India's growth rate falling to a two-year low during the March 2017 quarter (Q4) has more to do with the slowdown in the global economy, according to union finance minister Arun Jaitley, contrary to the economists who attributed the slowdown to demonetisation.

Jaitley was addressing a press conference in New Delhi on three years of Modi government.

The growth rate falling to 6.1 percent in Q4 robbed India of the "world's fastest-growing economy" tag as China's economy grew at 6.9 percent during the corresponding period.

Trying to focus on the achievement part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure, Jaitley referred to foreign direct investment (FDI) that hit a new high for 2016-17, in addition to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that is all set to be rolled out from July 1 this year.

"...the growth momentum lost steam in 1Q17 (final quarter of fiscal year 16/17), pointing to spillover impact from the December quarter's banknote ban, when growth had proved surprisingly resilient. Hence, an average of 4Q16 and 1Q17 growth rates are a better reflection of the demonetisation fallout," Radhika Rao, economist, group research, DBS Bank, said on Thursday.

Two other economists — Upasna Bharadwaj of Kotak Mahindra Bank and Devendra Kumar Pant, Chief Economist at India Ratings & Research — had expressed similar views on Wednesday.

Here are the highlights of Arun Jaitley's press conference: