Services and manufacturing companies have registered a 10% growth in turnover during April-December, 2004-05 as compared to the previous year, CII's 'State of the Economy Report' said.The drop in interest costs in the manufacturing sector has slowed down from the steep 22% decline last year, the report said, adding the interest costs have risen by 14.8 percentage points in the services sector."This could point to the upturn in interest rates in the last couple of months," CII said.Sales in the services sector increased by 36.8% during the period under review.The report has stated that there has been an increase in profit margins for the manufacturing sector, but a decline for companies in the services sector.The operating margins for the 544 manufacturing firms increased from 14.8 to 17.4 per cent for 2002-03 to 2004-05 whereas post-tax margins jumped 4 percentage points to 8.7, the survey said.With the corporate sector performing strongly, the GDP growth in the first half of 2004-05 has been 7% with quarterly growth at 7.4% and 6.6% in the first and second quarter respectively, the report said.
