New Delhi, Oct. 14 -- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its latest consumer confidence surveys this week. The urban Current Situation Index stood at 87.9, down from 95.7 in March, and the rural index has fallen similarly. India's growth numbers are strong, and yet the mood apparently is not.

A 'vibecession' is a gap between two sets of numbers: the official figures on output and jobs, and what people tell surveys about how they feel. The first set gets relentless scrutiny; revisions to gross domestic product (GDP), base years and deflators are debated in public. The second tends to be read like a thermometer. But a sentiment index is built from a survey, and surveys have their own challenges.

The central bank's urban survey sampl...