MUMBAI, India  India is counting on faster economic growth to help reduce its large deficit and pay for increased spending on agriculture, education, health and infrastructure, according to the national budget presented on Monday.

But even as the government set those ambitious goals, a report showed that India’s economy slowed more than expected at the end of last year.

Growth in the final three months of 2010 fell to 8.2 percent, from 8.9 percent in the previous quarter. Analysts had forecast that growth would fall to 8.6 percent.

The slowdown, which some economists said could continue into this year as higher inflation and weaker private investment sapped growth, poses the biggest challenge to the Indian government’s plans for the coming year. The finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told Parliament on Monday that the government believed that gross domestic product would grow at 8.75 to 9.25 percent in the coming fiscal year.