YoY vs QoQ Growth
YoY (year-on-year) compares a quarter's numbers with the same quarter a year earlier; QoQ (quarter-on-quarter) compares them with the immediately preceding quarter. YoY removes seasonality; QoQ shows near-term momentum.
Most Indian businesses are seasonal — festive-quarter demand for consumer companies, monsoon effects for agri and cement, fiscal-year-end pushes for banks and IT deal cycles. Comparing Q3 to Q2 mixes seasonality with performance, which is why YoY is the default lens for results. QoQ earns its keep when you are tracking a turnaround or a slowdown in real time, where waiting a year is too slow.
The classic trap is the base effect. Growth of "+300%" off a quarter that was nearly zero — or a percentage computed off a loss — is arithmetic noise, not performance. When last year's base was a loss or near-zero, the honest description is "loss to profit" or "loss narrowed", not a percentage.
Read growth with the base in view: what was the year-ago number, was it depressed or inflated by one-offs, and is the growth rate itself accelerating or decelerating across quarters? The second derivative is often the story.
Related terms
Get alerted when it happens
When a company you follow announces a yoy vs qoq growth — or anything else material — MarketPing sends the filing to your WhatsApp within minutes, AI-summarised with an importance score. Free for 3 companies.
Educational content, not investment advice. Regulations and tax rules change — verify current rules before acting.