Just 790 million dollars flowed in for the nine months to September, just a fourth of the 3.42 billion dollars invested during the same period last year, the central bank said in a report released by Yonhap news agency.

South Korea, Asia's fourth largest economy, has attracted less and less foreign direct investment with 9.25 billion dollars in 2004 and 4.34 billion dollars in 2005, it said.

"It is true that foreigners are withdrawing their investments in South Korea," a central bank official told Yonhap.

"They seem to be worried about the worsening of the domestic business climate and the weakening potential of economic growth."

South Korea recorded a net outflow of foreign investment of 2.2 billion dollars in September when global supermarket chains Carrefour and Wal-Mart withdrew from here, according to the bank.

The central bank has expected the country's economy to expand around five percent this year, but growth is widely expected to slow down next year.

In the January-September period, South Korean firms' direct investment overseas rose 50 percent year-on-year to 4.97 billion dollars, the bank said.

South Korean investments in overseas securities soared to 17.2 billion dollars during the same period from 3.45 billion dollars a year ago, it said.