The economy shrank 0.7 percent in real terms during the July-September quarter compared with the previous three months, marking its fourth consecutive contraction, the longest ever in the postwar years, the Economic Planning Agency announced Thursday.

It was the first time the EPA recorded four straight periods of negative growth in real term gross domestic product; it began compiling statistics in 1955.

The economy now stands over the precipice of recording a second consecutive year of negative GDP growth.