Seoul - South Korea's economy contracted a more-than-expected 5.6 per cent in the final quarter of 2008 - its biggest drop since the Asian financial crisis a decade ago - as exports shrank, domestic consumption waned and business investment declined, the central bank said Thursday.
The fall in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) from the quarter before contrasted with a 0.5-per-cent rise in the third quarter. On a year-on-year basis, the fourth-quarter fall was 3.4 per cent as the global economic crisis gripped South Korea, the Bank of Korea said.