South Korea's listed firms paid more than 30 trillion won in dividends last year. 

According to the Korea Listed Companies Association on Monday, the amount of dividends doled out last year by 753 firms listed on the country's main bourse Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) stood at 30-trillion-359-billion won. 

It marks a growth of nine-point-23 percent from a year earlier. All the surveyed companies’ fiscal year ends in December.

The number of KOSPI-listed firms that paid dividends in cash also edged up, increasing by eight to 546. 

As for those cash-paying firms, their dividend payout ratio, or the amount of dividends paid to their stockholders relative to the amount of total net income, was tallied at 30-point-33 percent on average, up by three-point-61 percentage points from 2017.