By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
South Korean firms' charitable donations have fallen by 10 to 20 percent in the first half of this year, according to their semi-annual reports.
Samsung Electronics ranked No. 1 as the biggest cash donor in this year's first half by giving 25 billion won ($20.1 million). However, this is down 8.8 percent from the amount the conglomerate gave during the same period last year.
SK Telecom, the country's largest mobile operator, donated 22.6 billion won in the first six months, which is nearly a 23-percent drop from last year.
Steel giant POSCO's recent sluggish results reflected that it gave only 15.1 billion won, only 20 percent of the amount in the first half of 2008.
Hyundai Motor and LG Electronics were no exception, respectively donating 11.5 billion won and 10.3 billion won, down 10 percent and 24.5 percent from the previous year.
Aside from the traditionally top donors, GS Caltex and Lotte Shopping scaled back 18 percent and 21 percent to give 6.2 billion won and 1.5 billion won in the first half of this year.
Industry insiders say that companies' charitable donations saw a steep decline in the first six months of 2008, as the period is widely considered to have been the eye of the economic storm.
Charitable organizations expect that corporate donations will rise again in the second half as economic conditions show signs of improving.