Hong Kong, China: Samsung’s quarterly profits fell to their lowest level in eight years as customers purchased fewer cell phones and laptop computers. It was the company’s lowest quarterly profit since the third quarter of 2014 when its smartphone business fell behind competitors substantially.

“Due to weak demand amid a global economic slowdown, the business environment deteriorated significantly in the fourth quarter,” Samsung remarked in a statement. The bleak outcomes were expected. Analysts cited falling memory chip prices and fewer orders of consumer devices as reasons for Samsung’s poor performance in a pre-earnings forecast earlier this month.

The electronics maker confirmed in an investor presentation that “mobile and PC demand was weak,” and that its memory chip business had also suffered “as customers continued to adjust their inventories amid deepening uncertainties.”

Samsung anticipates that some of these issues will persist in the coming months due to global economic uncertainty, but that overall demand will begin to recover in the second half of the year. Smartphone demand is expected to fall again this quarter compared to the same period last year, “due to the economic slowdown in major regions,” based on the statement.

Samsung’s shares recently dropped 3 perent in Seoul. There were some shining moments. Samsung reported 302.2 trillion won ($245.7 billion) in revenue for the full fiscal year 2022, an increase from 279.6 trillion won ($227.4 billion) in 2021 and a record high.

Analysts, on the other hand, predict that the company’s profits will fall again this quarter as memory chip prices continue to fall.

WORLD ROUNDUP: Emissions divide is greater within countries than between them; Study