South Korea's corporate revenue logs double-digit growth in 2022

South Korea's corporate revenue logged a double-digit growth last year owing to higher export price for oil products and automobiles, central bank data showed Tuesday.

Revenue among 12,199 manufacturers and 17,930 non-manufacturers subject to external audit gained 16.9 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It was down from an expansion of 17.7 percent in 2021.

Revenue for manufacturers increased 16.4 percent in 2022 after growing 19.7 percent in the previous year.

The double-digit increase was attributed to higher price for exported cars and oil products.

Sales by non-manufacturers rose 17.5 percent last year after climbing 15.3 percent in the prior year.

Corporate profitability worsened as higher raw material prices raised production costs.

The ratio of operating profit to revenue stood at 5.3 percent in 2022, down from 6.8 percent in the previous year.

The ratio for manufacturers declined 1.5 percentage points over the year to 6.3 percent last year, while the reading for non-manufacturers slipped 1.5 percentage points to 4.2 percent.

The ratio of operating profit to interest cost retreated from 654.0 percent in 2021 to 455.4 percent in 2022 on lower corporate profitability.

The debt-to-equity ratio for the local companies came to 102.4 percent in 2022, up 1.4 percentage points from the previous year.