S. Korea’s corporate revenue turns downward in 2023

SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) — Revenue for non-financial for-profit corporations in South Korea turned downward in 2023 due to lower global demand for locally-made products, central bank data showed Wednesday.
Revenue for 183,670 manufacturers and 751,927 non-manufacturers, excluding financial companies, shed 1.5 percent in 2023 from a year earlier after expanding 15.1 percent in the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Sales by manufacturers slumped 2.3 percent in 2023 on the back of weaker semiconductor demand and lower oil products’ prices, while revenue for non-manufacturers shrank 0.9 percent.
Corporate profitability worsened. The ratio of operating profit to revenue decreased to 3.5 percent in 2023 from 4.5 percent in the previous year.
The ratio for manufacturers went down from 5.7 percent to 3.3 percent in the cited period, but the reading for non-manufacturers increased from 3.6 percent to 3.7 percent.
The interest coverage ratio, which measures a company’s ability to pay interest expenses with operating profit, came to 191.1 percent in 2023, sharply down from 348.6 percent in the prior year.
The debt-to-equity ratio for the for-profit corporations stood at 120.8 percent in 2023, down 1.5 percentage points from a year earlier. ■