AnyTime News 
Any Time News Network | Pooja Srivastava
The Reserve Bank of India has released data on the performance of the private corporate business sector for Q3 FY2025-26, based on the quarterly results of 3,188 listed non-government non-financial companies. The data indicates a significant turnaround, with aggregate sales growth accelerating to 10.1% year-on-year, marking a return to double-digit expansion after eleven consecutive quarters of single-digit growth.
The manufacturing sector emerged as the primary growth driver, recording an 11.4% y-o-y increase in sales during Q3, up from 8.5% in the previous quarter. Industries such as automobiles, electrical machinery, and non-ferrous metals contributed substantially to this surge.
The Information Technology (IT) sector also showed improvement, with sales growth rising to 8.8% from 7.8% in Q2. Meanwhile, non-IT services companies maintained stable growth at 10.6%.
On the expenditure front, raw material costs for manufacturing companies rose sharply by 12.7%, pushing the raw material-to-sales ratio to 57.5%, reflecting mounting input cost pressures. Staff costs increased at a faster pace in manufacturing (12.4%) and IT (6.6%), while non-IT services saw a moderation in staff cost growth.
Despite cost pressures, operating profits remained resilient. Manufacturing companies posted an 11.8% rise in operating profits, while IT firms recorded an 11.1% increase. However, operating profit growth for non-IT services companies slowed to 4.0%.
Encouragingly, interest expenses declined sequentially, improving the Interest Coverage Ratio (ICR) for manufacturing firms to 9.0 from 8.6 in Q2. Non-IT services firms also witnessed improvement in their ICR, signaling enhanced debt-servicing capacity.
Overall, Q3 results reflect strengthening demand conditions and operational resilience in India’s private corporate sector, even as cost pressures remain a key concern.
