A bubble has to pop sometime.

"The Indian economy is not showing signs of bottoming out. Growth in the September quarter slowed for the sixth consecutive time to 4.5%, the lowest since March 2013, as manufacturing output contracted, according to data released on Friday." The Economic Affairs Secretary came out with the tired old bromide of fundamentals being strong and that growth will accelerate soon. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that a growth rate of 4.5% is "unacceptable". Why, when the global economy is also slowing down? "The global economy is in a synchronized slowdown and we are, once again, downgrading growth for 2019 to 3 percent, its slowest pace since the global financial crisis," said IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath. According to IMF projection, advanced economies will grow at 3% in 2019, while emerging economies will grow at 3.9%. A 4.5% growth rate for India is much higher than any of its peers so why the point scoring? Because, only in January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was boasting that he had transformed India from a member of the "fragile five" group to the fastest growing economy in the world. The term "fragile five" was coined by an analyst at Morgan Stanley in 2013 for economies that are "too dependent on unreliable foreign investment to finance their growth ambitions". Not just foreign investors, "India continues to retain its position as the world's top recipient of remittances with its diaspora sending back $78.6 billion in 2018." Despite all the bad news the stock market in India is hitting record highs everyday. "The Indian stock market is already factoring in reasonable recovery in the economy and earnings," explained analysts to their clients, wrote Alvares and Sultana. "We remain fairly sceptical about any imminent recovery in the Indian economy," said the same analysts. "As odd as it may sound, Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) is doing a better job of portraying the current economic woes of the country than mainline indices, Sensex and Nifty," wrote Vatsala Kamat. The price-earnings valuation of L&T shares, considered a bellwether, have fallen about 25% since early July, while that of Nifty has risen about 5% in the same period. In another sign of weak economic activity, "Bank credit to private sector non-financial firms grew at a five-year low of 9.3%", because companies are having to pare down their previous loan burden. They have not succeeded because "corporate debt was 46.8% of GDP as of September, not very different from 45.8% in September 2015". The reforms of 1991 did not help manufacturing and so did not create jobs. "For the nearly three decades after Manmohan Singh's economic reform 'finance and real estate' was India's fastest growing sector," wrote Prof Ashoka Mody. That bubble is deflating. "Reforms in emerging markets and developing economies are also more effective when good governance is already in place," wrote Gopinath. Who will do that?