Domestic Companies' Net Profit Decreases by 60 Trillion Won Last Year

Statistics Korea, 2019 Survey on Business Activities Results

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Last year, the pre-tax net profit of domestic companies decreased by 60 trillion won compared to the previous year.

On the 15th, Statistics Korea announced the results of the 2019 Corporate Activity Survey containing this information. This is a provisional tally of the '2019 Corporate Activity Survey' conducted in July this year targeting 13,255 domestic corporate entities with 'more than 50 regular employees and capital of over 300 million won' among domestic companies.

According to this, the number of domestic companies subject to the Corporate Activity Survey was 13,255, an increase of 0.8% compared to the previous year (13,144). The number of employees was 4,664,000, up 1.6% from the previous year (4,590,000).

Total sales (excluding financial and insurance industries) amounted to 2,440 trillion won, a decrease of 0.6% compared to the previous year (2,454 trillion won). Pre-tax net profit was 102 trillion won, down 37.1% from the previous year (162 trillion won). Accordingly, the pre-tax net profit earned per 1,000 won of sales was 41.7 won, a decrease of 24.2 won compared to the previous year (65.8 won).

Among the surveyed companies, 5,695 had subsidiaries. Of these, 3,247 companies had overseas subsidiaries, an increase of 1.0% compared to the previous year (3,214). Overseas subsidiaries were ranked in order as China (28.2%), the United States (12.9%), and Vietnam (11.7%).

Research and development expenses (excluding financial and insurance industries) amounted to 60.1 trillion won, an increase of 2.6% compared to the previous year (58.6 trillion won). Companies utilizing external outsourcing numbered 9,527, accounting for 71.9% of all surveyed companies. By sector, outsourcing rates were highest in security, cleaning, and facility management (23.3%), production (18.8%), and transportation and delivery services (17.4%).

Among the surveyed companies, 1,711 (12.9%) were found to be developing or utilizing technologies related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The main Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies developed or utilized were cloud computing (22.4%), big data (18.6%), Internet of Things (15.0%), and artificial intelligence (12.0%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.