Seoul, June 23 (IANS): Research and development (R&D) expenditures by major South Korean companies hit an all-time high last year despite their falling sales amid an economic slowdown, data showed on Sunday.

The country's top 1,000 companies made investments of 72.5 trillion won ($52.12 billion) combined in 2023, up 8.7 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology.

It was the largest ever amount, it showed, reports Yonhap news agency.

The increase came despite their sales falling 2.8 per cent on-year to 1,642 trillion won, and the proportion of corporate R&D investment out of sales rose 4.4 per cent in 2023 from the previous year's 3.9 per cent.

Tech giant Samsung invested the largest amount in R&D last year with 23.9 trillion won, which was up 14.4 per cent on-year and accounted for 32.9 per cent of the total investment by South Korean companies.

Leading carmaker Hyundai Motor came next with 3.7 trillion won, which marked 15.6 per cent on-year growth. R&D spending by chip behemoth SK hynix fell 10 per cent year-on-year to 3.6 trillion won.

Home appliances giant LG Electronics increased its R&D expenditure by 10 per cent to 3.3 trillion won, and Samsung Display Co. spent 2.8 trillion won on R&D last year, up 12 per cent on-year.

Kia Corp. was the fifth-largest R&D investor last year with 2.2 trillion won, the data showed.

Of the 1,000 companies, 171 were large conglomerates and 491 were second-tier mid-sized companies. The remaining 338 firms were mid- and small-sized companies.

"The number of mid-sized companies that were among the top 1,000 major R&D investing companies has risen over the past years. The government will extend support for companies to increase investment for innovation," a ministry official said.