The South Korean economy is projected to contract one-point-eight percent in the second quarter from a year earlier amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bloomberg issued the projection on Sunday after compiling growth outlooks for the Korean economy by 24 domestic and foreign investment banks.

The figure is one-point-six percentage points lower from its previous projection issued in April.

It would be the first in about a decade for South Korea to post negative quarterly growth since the 2008 global financial crisis, when it posted a contraction for three consecutive times through the second quarter of 2009. The economy shrank one-point-seven percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, one-point-eight percent in the first quarter of 2009 and one-point-two percent in the second quarter of 2009. 

However, the country's figure was better than those for 20 major economies, whose growth outlooks for the second quarter were estimated at minus 18-point-one percent on average.

China was expected to post growth of two percent in the second quarter, while South Korea came in second.