According to the official forecast — technically called the First Advance Estimates — in the current financial year that will end in March, India’s economic output (measured by Gross Domestic Product or GDP) will grow by 8% in nominal terms and 7.4% in real terms.

The difference between real and nominal growth is the level of inflation in the economy. The nominal GDP is the actual observed value of the GDP, and by removing the effect of inflation, one derives the real GDP growth rate.

The curious thing about these numbers has been that, when compared by past standards, an 8% nominal GDP growth is fairly weak — more often than not, India’s nominal GDP has been closer to 12% — and a 7.4% real GDP growth is fairly strong.

This rather confusing situation has been compounded by persistent arguments by critics, including the former Chief Economic Advisor to the incumbent government, that India’s official data for economic growth doesn’t tally with many other sets of data in the economy.

For instance, if the whole economy is growing at 8% on average, which is a fairly low growth rate by itself, then it would stand to reason that the biggest companies in corporate India would be growing their sales at a much faster rate. India’s GDP is the average, and many parts of the economy, like agriculture, often grow at a slower rate.

The question is: While India’s GDP has been surprising observers on the upside every quarter this financial year, what has happened to the growth rate of net sales in corporate India?

The TABLE alongside gives the growth rates for the past five quarters, going all the way back to the quarter ending December 2024. Since net sales data is in nominal terms, the India GDP growth rate is also in nominal terms for a fair comparison. As can be seen, corporate India’s net sales growth has lagged behind overall GDP growth rate.

The December 2025 data for net sales growth rate has been sourced from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)’s Economic Outlook database. It is based on the financial statements of 319 “early birds” — or companies that have released their results for the December quarter sooner than others. The data for the rest of quarters is based on the results of almost 5,000 companies.

CMIE’s analysis finds that sales growth has remained consistently in the single digits for the past 10 quarters. Further, it notes that results of the early birds indicate that growth in net sales may have lost a little more steam in the December 2025 quarter.

“The average year-on-year growth in corporate sector sales in the first three quarters of 2025-26 works out to about 5.8%, in nominal terms. This, at least to an extent, belies the story of the non-farm Indian economy growing at about 8% in real terms in the same year,” says Mahesh Vyas, the MD and CEO of CMIE.