Fitch Ratings announced on Wednesday that it expects the South Korean economy to shrink 2.4 percent in 2009, posting the first growth contraction in more than a decade amid ongoing global economic crisis.

The estimate of Fitch is far lower than the Bank of Korea's 2-percent prediction and the objective of the South Korean government to attain 3 percent growth.

Fitch projected South Korea will face greater economic downturn compared with other Asian countries.

The agency projected that the economies of China's Taiwan, Thailand and China's Hong Kong will contract by 2.1 percent, 1.1 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, while China is expected to grow by 6 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2009)