The Reserve Bank of India released the annual performance report of the listed private non-financial companies. IT sector companies continue to dominate the manufacturing sector in annual growth rate despite the latter’s soaring year-on-year growth in the fiscal year 2024-25.
Furthermore, the profit growth of the non-financial private companies felt the effect of a significant rise in raw materials and staff costs. Here are the highlights of the RBI’s report on sales, expenditure, and profits of the 3902 listed private non-financial companies of India.
Sales of non-financial companies
According to the central bank’s report, the overall sales of the private non-financial companies grew by 7.2 percent in the fiscal year 2024-25. Earlier in the previous fiscal year, the sales of the companies saw a low growth of 4.7 percent.
The manufacturing sector’s sales bounced back in the FY25 with a growth rate of 6 percent against a low 3.5 percent growth in FY24. The growth in the sector was led by the automobile, food and beverage, machinery, and pharmaceuticals sectors. In contrast, the petroleum, iron, and steel industries recorded a contraction in their sales.
IT sector growth improves
The IT sector also posted a yearly growth of 7.1 percent in its sales during the same period. This is an improvement of 1.6 percent compared to the previous year’s growth of 5.5 percent. Furthermore, the non-IT sector, particularly, telecommunications, trade, and transportation as saw a good growth in the year.
Expenditure of non-financial companies
The manufacturing sector saw higher growth in its expenditure on raw materials than in sales in the fiscal year. The cost of raw materials for the manufacturing sector increased by 6.6 percent in FY25. The raw material to sales ratio also increased to 55.7 percent from 54.2 percent in FY24.
The overall staff cost for the non-finance companies increased by 10 percent in FY25. While the staffing cost for the manufacturing sector increased by just 4.4 percent, for the IT sector, staffing cost saw a growth of 12 percent in the year.
Operating profit growth declines
The increase in the manufacturing and staffing costs hit the profit margins of the listed non-financial companies. While in FY24, the operating profit growth rate was 12.4 percent, it decreased to 6 percent in FY25.
The operating profit margins of the manufacturing sector decreased from 14.4 percent in FY24 to 14.2 percent in FY25. Similarly, the IT sector’s profit margins also dropped from 22.7 percent in FY24 to 21.9 percent in FY25.