Overview
- Sales of 1,794 listed manufacturing firms rose 11.4% year on year, led by automobiles, electrical machinery and non-ferrous metals.
- Services showed divergence, with IT sales up 8.8% and operating profit growth at 11.1%, while non-IT services’ operating profit growth eased to 4%.
- Raw material expenses for manufacturing increased 12.7% year on year, and the raw‑material‑to‑sales ratio climbed to 57.5%, signaling input cost pressure.
- Staff costs accelerated, rising 12.4% for manufacturing and 6.6% for IT, with non-IT services seeing a moderation in staff cost growth to 8.3%.
- Manufacturing operating margins softened sequentially even as services-sector margins improved, and aggregate net profit growth remained below the year-ago 11.8% despite a pickup from Q2’s 1.5%.