South Korean companies have dropped in profitability from last three years, according to industry data released on Monday.

The ratio of net income to sales at South Korean businesses from 2012-2014 fell 2.9 percentage points. It stood at 5.5 percent on average in 2014, far lower than the world’s average (7.9 percent) and emerging countries (average 5.9 percent). Meanwhile, the global average ratio from 2012 to 2014 rose by around 0.24 percentage point.

Japan marked the highest rise of 1.3 percentage points over the cited period, followed by Sweden with a hike of 1.1 percentage points and Malaysia with a 0.9-percentage point increase.

Experts analyzed that the low profitability was due to the continued decline of the manufacturing industry, the core pillar of the Korean economy.