ET Now: Do you think financial markets are very naive in the way they are reacting? The world is fighting for deflation, but despite a global growth scare, most of the major markets are sitting at a record high, be it DAX, the Nikkei or the NASDAQ.

Marc Faber : Yes. There is decoupling between economic activity and asset markets. If you look at the economies globally, we know that in Europe there is hardly any growth. Can Europe, relative to its poor performance of the last few years, grow this year by 1-1.5%? It is possible, but we understand GDP is not a very relevant measure of economic well-being. In the US, the latest statistics are rather disappointing and in China, we have meaningful slowdown as well as in all resource producers of the world.

John Anderson, my friend who is a very good economist and also has his own consulting firm, calculated that the GDP figures in India are actually overstating economic growth significantly. It does not mean that he is bearish about the Indian financial assets. I am also positive essentially about the Indian assets, but growth is not what the government is publishing.
– in Economic Times of India

….more from Marc Faber:

Marc Faber: Indian Stocks can correct by 20%