Nearly 11 percent of them forecast their shipments to tumble more than 30 percent, while slightly over 34 percent projected declines of 10 to 30 percent.

Some 29 percent expected their sales to be similar to last year's levels, with 26 percent predicting shipments to rise moderately or sharply.

The poll, taken by the Federation of Korean Industries, also showed 82.5 percent of the large companies surveyed expected their sales to match last year's levels or increase this year.

No big businesses forecast their sales to drop sharply, while 13 percent projected jumps in their shipments.

Both pessimistic smaller and large companies cited a decline in demand both at home and abroad as the biggest reason for their bleak outlooks.

The largest number of the respondents (26 percent) replied that sluggish domestic demand remains the biggest risk to their management.

Nearly 83 percent of the companies said they will put the top priority of their management strategy on focusing their resources on creating new growth engines, according to the findings. (Yonhap)