The South Korean economy’s dependence on conglomerates is ever deepening. 

Statistics Korea said on Wednesday that local companies exported 602-point-four billion U.S. dollars worth of goods last year and 403-point-eight billion dollars of them, or 67 percent, were from large-sized firms. Last year, the figure was 66-point-four percent. 

The amount of exports by the country's top ten companies increased sharply by ten-point-four percent from a year earlier, accounting for as much as 38 percent of total exports. 

The value of outbound shipments by mid-rank exporters and small and mid-sized enterprises(SME) that, combined, make up 99 percent of all South Korean companies only accounted for 33 percent of the total exports. 

In comparison, the portion of exports by SMEs declined to 16-point-nine percent from 17-point-seven percent. 

The imbalance between different industries was also notable with mining and manufacturing sectors, including semiconductor and petrochemical producers, accounting for 84-point-one percent of last year's exports. The portion for wholesale and retail businesses and other industries stood at 15-point-nine percent.