Samsung Electronics quarterly profits to plunge to eight-year low

SEOUL, Jan 6 (AFP): Samsung Electronics said Friday it expected its fourth-quarter operating profits to plunge 69 per cent to an eight-year low as the global downturn hammers demand for memory chips and smartphones.

The South Korean tech giant said operating profits for the October-December period had likely slumped to 4.3 trillion won ($3.4 billion), a stinging year-on-year drop from 13.87 trillion won.

It would be the company's worst decline in quarterly profits since the third quarter of 2014.

In a statement, Samsung said fourth-quarter profits were "well below current market expectations", blaming the performance on macroeconomic issues, spurred by central banks around the world raising interest rates.

Weak demand for memory chips was "greater than expected as customers adjusted inventories... to further tighten finances," it said.

It added that this was "spurred by concerns over deteriorating consumer sentiment caused (by) continued high global interest rates and weak economic outlooks".