From The Times
August 4, 2008

India struggles to regain control as elephant economy does about-turn

Rhys Blakely in Bombay

The rise of India's economy is often compared to the progress of an elephant - slow and plodding when compared with the dragon of China, but invested with a heavy sense of inevitability. In the past six months, however, the elephant has performed a disconcerting about-turn.

In January India appeared to be in excellent shape. Annual GDP growth was close to 9 per cent, corporate profitability had risen by 20 per cent in a year and the stock market had surged 50 per cent. The elephant was trundling along at full speed.

Seven months later, Bombay's benchmark Sensex index has lost 40 per cent of its value and foreign investors are fleeing the market.

Andrew Holland, head of proprietary trading at Merrill Lynch in Bombay, said: “This time last year the talk was of India decoupling from the troubles of the rest of the world economy. Now it's clear that India has its own problems. It has gone from hero to zero.â€