South Korea would remain unperturbed as it would not face any risk of capital outflows stemming from a potential rise in the U.S. key interest rate in the near future, said the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan.

Choi emphasized that Korea had strong, sound fundamentals, and the capability to flexibly implement its fiscal policy in response to external macroeconomic factors.

“Unlike near-zero interest rates adopted by many other countries, (Korea) is maintaining a relatively high interest rate,” Choi said in an investor relations meeting in New York on Thursday.

“Even if the U.S. were to raise its key rate soon, there will not be drastic capital outflow from Korea,” he said, citing the country’s sufficient foreign currency reserves, current account surplus and low short-term debt ratio.

He presented investors and economists the country’s economic policies under the theme of “Korean Economy: From Resilience to Breakthrough.”

Its key points included directly injecting massive capital into the market as a means to revitalize the economy.

“Some 41 trillion won ($38 billion) will be injected into the market to boost domestic consumption, reform the labor market, create new jobs and to activate a creative economy,” he explained.

These sets of expansionary measures will hopefully pull the nation’s growth rate up to 3.7 percent this year and 4 percent next year, he added, noting that Asia’s fourth-largest economy was not yet free from possible prolonged low growth.

This marks the first time in almost 10 years since a Korean deputy prime minister hosted an IR meeting in New York in 2005, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

More than 200 global investors, including Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of the world’s largest private equity fund Blackstone, attended the meeting.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)