NEW DELHI: In some welcome news for a government heading into national polls in a few months, the Central Statistics Office on Monday forecast that the economy will grow 7.2% in 2018-19, faster than the previous year’s 6.7% expansion.The estimate is a shade lower than the RBI’s, which expects the economy to grow 7.4% in the current fiscal year that ends in March.The forecast will help India keep the fastest growing economy tag as growth in China is expected to slow.“Very healthy advance GDP growth numbers for 2018-19. India remains fastest growing major economy globally,” said economic affairs secretary S C Garg.The manufacturing sector is estimated to grow by 8.3% in 2018-19, faster than the previous year’s 5.7% while farm sector is set to grow by 3.8% compared with 3.4% in 2017-18. Construction is expected to show signs of a turnaround growing by an annual 8.9% compared with 5.7% expansion in the previous year.“Revival in private investment is critical to sustaining the upswing in overall investments. Improvement in private consumption demand and a stable election outcome will play an important role in that,” said D K Joshi, chief economist at ratings agency Crisil.“Private consumption was a sore spot with its growth slipping a new to 6.4% from 6.6% as farm incomes and rural wage growth remained weak. Real agriculture GDP growth was strong at 3.8% but nominal growth fell to 3.8% from 4.5% suggesting farmers are realising less from their produce,” he added.Economists said on the consumption side, the FY15-FY19 private final consumption expenditure average growth of 6.8% is 40 basis points higher than the previous 5 year average.