South Korea's fertility rate hit another record low last year, falling below one for the first time despite a raft of measures to try to reverse one of the world's lowest birth rates.

The country's fertility rate - the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime - fell to 0.98 in 2018, far short of the 2.1 needed to maintain population stability.

"It is the first time that the figure has dropped below one since Seoul started collecting data in 1970," Statistics Korea said in a statement.

This means the population of the world's 11th largest economy, currently 51 million, may start sliding before 2028, the year Seoul had forecast as the beginning point for its decline.

The figure for 2017, 1.05, was also a record low.

Capitalism is deadly, producing pressure and instability and huge inflation on basic needs.