SEOUL, KOREA - Despite stagnant performance in the fourth quarter of last year, Samsung Electronics achieved record-high results in the full year of 2013. The company is estimated to have posted sales of 228.4 trillion won last year, up 13.6 percent from a year ago and a 1.67-fold increase compared to 136 trillion won marked in 2009.
Samsung Electronics’ 2013 sales is two times higher than Korea’s welfare budget which was set at 97 trillion won last year and is equivalent to about two thirds of the Korean government’s total budget (342 trillion won).
Samsung Electronics posted an operating profit of 36.77 trillion won last year, up 26.6 percent from a year ago and a three-fold increase compared to 2009. Its one-year profit is 9 trillion won higher than the total debts of the nation’s municipal governments which are estimated at 28 trillion won.