Half of conglomerates to tighten belts next year: survey

SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Yonhap) -- Nearly half of South Korea's conglomerates said they will tighten their belts next year while smaller companies hoped to keep their business status quo, a poll showed Sunday.

In the poll conducted by the Korea Employers Federation on 228 companies, 51.4 percent of the leading large firms responded they will seek tight management for 2015, up 11.8 percentage points from a year earlier.

As for the 158 small and medium-sized companies, 46.6 percent said they will keep the status quo next year. Only 14.3 percent of large caps and 21.9 percent of smaller firms said they will expand aggressively next year.

The poll also showed 50.9 percent of the companies plan to execute investment plans similar to those in 2014 next year, while 25.5 percent said they will reduce the amount, outnumbering the 23.7 percent that said they will increase theirs.

Around 60 percent of the respondents said they will maintain new hirings at this year's level, a response that indicates the job market will remain icy in 2015.

The companies on average expected South Korea's economy to grow 3.3 percent next year, lower than the 3.9 percent projection by the Bank of Korea.

colin@yna.co.kr
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