Revenue for 11,604 manufacturers and 11,358 non-manufacturers subject to external audit, excluding financial firms, grew 1.2 percent in the January-March quarter from a year earlier after sliding for the past three quarters, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Sales by manufacturers advanced 3.3 percent in the first quarter after going up 0.9 percent in the previous quarter.
Revenue for non-manufacturers declined 1.6 percent in the cited quarter, keeping a downward trend for the fourth consecutive quarter.
Corporate profitability gained ground. The ratio of operating profit to revenue for the companies rose to 5.4 percent in the first quarter from 2.8 percent in the same quarter of last year.
The ratio for manufacturers gained to 5.4 percent in the first quarter from 2.5 percent a year earlier, while the figure for non-manufacturers increased from 3.2 percent to 5.3 percent.
The debt-to-equity ratio for the companies came in at 92.1 percent in the first quarter, up from 89.2 percent in the previous quarter.
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