Surge in Private Sector Sales: Q4 Sees Significant Growth

The Reserve Bank's data indicates that listed private non-financial companies registered a 6.9% sales growth in Q4 2023-24, compared to 5.5% in the previous quarter. The manufacturing sector saw significant improvements, while IT sector growth moderated. Rising input and staff costs influenced expenditure across various sectors.

In a notable uptick, sales of listed private non-financial companies climbed 6.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023-24, up from a 5.5 per cent rise in the previous quarter, as per Reserve Bank data released on Thursday.

The January-March quarter of 2022-23 had seen an 8 per cent growth in sales for these companies.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released statistics covering the performance of 2,823 listed non-government non-financial companies for Q4 2023-24, based on quarterly financial results.

Data reveals a significant year-on-year sales growth for 1,669 private manufacturing firms, which surged to 6.1 per cent in Q4 FY24 from 3.7 per cent in the previous quarter, driven by sectors like automobiles, petroleum, electrical machinery, and pharmaceuticals.

However, the IT sector's annual sales growth moderated to 3.1 per cent from 3.2 per cent in the previous quarter, a sharp decline from 16.0 per cent a year earlier.

Non-IT services companies maintained buoyant sales, recording a 10.4 per cent year-on-year growth in the January-March quarter of 2023-24, compared to a 20.5 per cent increase in the same period the previous fiscal year.

On the expenditure side, rising input and staff costs saw manufacturing companies' expenses grow by 4.6 per cent year-on-year in Q4 FY24.

'The rise in activity influenced the growth in staff costs, which has moderated for IT companies but remained robust for manufacturing and non-IT services,' the RBI noted.

Staff cost-to-sales ratios held steady at 5.3 per cent, 49.4 per cent, and 10.9 per cent for manufacturing, IT, and non-IT services companies respectively during the reviewed quarter.

Operating profits increased year-on-year by 8.7 per cent for manufacturing, 3.5 per cent for IT, and 16.3 per cent for non-IT services firms in Q4 2023-24.

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