The company's net loss for the last three months of 2008 was 22 billion won (US$15 million) on 4 percent lower sales of 18.5 trillion won, said Robert Yi, head of Samsung's investor relations department in a conference call. Samsung said its full year net profit dropped 26 percent to 5.5 trillion won, despite a 15 percent increase in revenue to 73 trillion won.

"Our company could not escape the rapid decline in the global economy," he said.

Samsung saw revenues fall as a result of lower prices for its mainstay memory chip and flat-panel display products. In the semiconductor sector revenues fell 18 percent from the third quarter and LCD sales dropped 12 percent.

As a result both the semiconductor and display business units lost money in the fourth quarter.

A relatively bright spot was Samsung's cell phone business, which saw shipments expand about 2 percent despite an estimated 5 percent decline in the global handset market. However while Samsung shipped more cell phones, it sold them at lower prices so the average selling price dropped 10 percent, said Yi.