Anchor: The South Korean economy grew zero-point-six percent last quarter. The annual growth rate for 2015 stalled at two-point-six percent, the lowest in three years.
Our Andrew Jeong has the latest economic assessment from the central bank.

Report: Dampened consumer confidence after the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS) and falling exports are blamed for the sluggish annual two-point-six percent growth last year.
 
According to the Bank of Korea(BOK) Tuesday, fourth-quarter growth slumped at zero-point-six percent despite key interest rate cuts and government-led efforts to boost consumer confidence.
 
The economy grew one-point-one percent in the first quarter of 2014, before slowing down to half-a-percent in the following quarter after the deadly sinking of the Sewol ferry. 

The South Korean economy grew below one percent for five consecutive quarters until June last year. The sluggish fourth quarter came even though the government managed to boost third-quarter growth to one-point-three percent with Black Friday sales events.
 
The Bank of Korea said growth last year stood at two-point-six percent, the lowest since 2012 when growth was two-point-three percent.

The 2015 growth rate falls below the government’s three percent target.

Throughout 2015, private consumption rose two-point-one percent from a year ago. However, outbound shipments grew only zero-point-four percent, and the contribution of exports to national economic growth fell to minus one-point-two percent.
 
A BOK official blamed the sluggish Chinese economy and low crude prices for the diminished South Korean export prices.
 
Exports grew two-point-one percent while imports grew two-point-eight percent.
Andrew Jeong, KBS World Radio News.