South Korean economy's dependence on external trade deepened in 2010, indicating that the Asia's No.4 economy became more export-driven, the central bank said Wednesday.

The ratio of exports and imports against gross supply, including gross output and imports, reached 32.9 percent in 2010, up 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

"South Korea has an open economy. Brisk exports were in favor of job creation. Bigger positive impact of growing exports to the nation's whole industry may be desirable for the economy," said an official at the BOK.

In terms of industrial structure, the dependence on the manufacturing sector widened. The proportion of output in the manufacturing industry jumped to 50.2 percent of total production in 2010 from 47.7 percent tallied in 2009. The figure topped the 50 percent mark for the first time since 1990 when it recorded 49. 6 percent.

Output in the service industry grew as a whole in 2010, but the growth pace was lower than the one for the manufacturing sector, reducing the proportion of the service industry's output against total production, the BOK said.

As for final demand, the proportion of exports rose to 35.1 percent of the total in 2010 from 34.2 percent in 2009, and the one for investment grew from 17.9 percent to 19.7 percent over the same period. The ratio for consumption contracted from 47.9 percent to 45.1 percent, hinting that South Korea's dependence on exports was increasingly strong.