Sales of S. Korean firms up for 2nd year in 2017

SEJONG, Nov. 20 (Yonhap) -- Combined sales by South Korean companies rose for the second-straight year in 2017 on better performances in the manufacturing, telecommunication and retail sectors, government data showed Tuesday.

The combined sales from 12,579 companies, excluding financial firms, reached 2,343 trillion won (US$2.07 trillion) last year, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It is based on a survey of the companies that have more than 50 regular workers and paid-in capital of more than 300 million won.

On average, the companies posted 191 billion won in sales last year, a gain of 7.3 percent from a year earlier.

The manufacturing companies saw their sales rise 8.8 percent last year to 1,411 trillion won.

Sales of construction companies rose 7.7 percent on-year to a combined 182 trillion won last year, while those of retail and telecommunication businesses added 10.6 percent and 6 percent, to 353 trillion won and 123 trillion won, respectively.

Their net pretax profit rose 36.1 percent to 173 trillion won last year on a rise in the manufacturing, transportation and construction businesses.

The total number of people employed by the companies checked reached 4.49 million last year, with 3.97 million, or 88.6 percent, being full-time workers.

Their combined outlays in research and development (R&D) hit 48.9 trillion won in 2017, up 13.4 percent on-year, with 13.4 billion won R&D investment per company.

sam@yna.co.kr
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