Seoul - Samsung Electronics Co, the leading South Korean electronics maker, posted its first quarterly loss, saying Friday that it was 20 billion won (14.59 million dollars) in the red in the final quarter of 2008.

The world's largest maker of memory chips and liquid-crystal displays said the falling prices of memory chips and sinking demand for electronics during the global economic downturn was the cause for the loss after it had seen a profit of 2.21 trillion won in the same quarter a year earlier.

The company also reported a 940-billion-won operating loss for 2008's fourth quarter and a 5.4-per-cent year-on-year fall in sales to 18.45 trillion won.

For all of 2008, Samsung reported a net profit of 5.53 trillion won, down from 7.4 trillion won in 2007. Full-year sales rose 15 per cent to 72.9 trillion won. (dpa)