The economic slowdown and slumping demand for personal computers sent Intel's net profit sharply lower as the world's biggest computer chip maker reported its fourth-quarter results.

The Santa Clara, California-based company said on Thursday net profit in the last three months of the year plunged to 234 million US dollars, down 90 percent from a year ago, on revenue of 8.2 billion US dollars.

Intel reported profit of 2.0 billion US dollars in the third-quarter of 2008, on 10.2 billion US dollars of revenue.

Intel also reported on Thursday that net profit for the year declined 24 percent to 5.3 billion US dollars on revenues of 37.6 billion US dollars, two percent lower than a year ago.

Intel lowered its fourth-quarter projections twice in the past few months and the results did not surprise analysts. Earnings of 92 cents per share for the year were in line with expectations.