South Korea's central bank projected negative growth this year amid the fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In its outlook report on Thursday, the Bank of Korea(BOK) revised down its forecast from two-point-one percent to negative point-two percent, after lowering it by point-two percentage points in March.

The last time the central bank gave a negative outlook was in July 2009 during the global financial crisis.

The BOK was widely expected to trim its forecast to reflect the one-point-four percent downgrade in growth in the first quarter and steep export declines in April and May.