India, Sept. 7 -- Abhishek Anand, Josh Felman and Arvind Subramanian ask how India could have grown at 7.8% in a quarter marked by an energy shock. It is a fair question. It also has an answer, that has been in plain sight for some years.

Begin with the timing. The quarter runs from April to June 2026. The conflict between Iran and the US and Israel peaked just before it. Oil prices jumped, and India felt it. The sharpest disruption, though, fell in March and the first days of April. By May, the pressure had eased. By June, it had largely passed. A few difficult weeks at the start of a three-month quarter do not turn the quarter's number into fiction.

The evidence from those months points one way. Auto sales rose steadily. Bank credit e...