The South Korean economy grew at the slowest pace in a decade last year, although it posted its fastest growth in more than two years in the fourth quarter. 

The Bank of Korea said on Wednesday that the country's gross domestic product expanded two percent in 2019 from a year earlier, beating market expectations of one-point-nine percent growth.

The nation reached the two-percent growth mark as the economy expanded at a better-than-expected pace of one-point-two percent in the fourth quarter on the back of the government's active fiscal spending and increased investment in construction. 

The figure represents the fastest quarterly growth since the third quarter of 2017.
 
However, the two-percent growth for the whole of 2019 marks the slowest on-year growth since 2009, when the economy expanded point-eight percent due to the global financial crisis.