South Korea's economy is facing numerous risks, including protracted low growth and low inflation, which requires the government to keep up its efforts to reinvigorate the economy by stimulating consumption and corporate investment, the finance minister said Thursday.

"Our economy is confronting the risks of low growth and low inflation as domestic demand recovery is being delayed," Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said in a parliamentary audit session, adding that external conditions are not favorable either, posing a risk to exports, which have served as a main driver for the country's economic growth in past decades. 

"We will run our macroeconomic policy in an expansionary manner until the economic recovery is getting solid ... The 41-trillion-won (US$38.7 billion) strong stimulus package will be carried out without delay, and regulations that were introduced when the market overheated will be rationalized," he noted. 

He also said that the government will do its best to boost corporate investment, inducing flows of corporate profits to households and strengthening the overall growth potential of the country's economy.

Since taking office in mid-July, Choi has announced a broad range of stimulus measures with a sense of urgency that the economy might be slipping into a protracted period of low growth due to uncertainty at home and abroad. 

They include fiscal support, tax code revisions and deregulation intended to boost corporate investment and household income. Most of the measures require law revisions before they can be implemented, and concerns mount that the divided parliament has become a major "risk factor" for the government's economic policies. 

Choi reiterated his calls for lawmakers' cooperation to pass economy-related bills as quickly as possible so that the government's stimulus efforts can achieve their intended objective. 

"Whether the bills pass or not is most important (to achieve the intended results)," he told the lawmakers. 

Asked if the government should consider additional stimulus measures to boost economic recovery, Choi said that he will wait "until the end of this year" before mulling more actions despite worries that excessive spending could hurt the country's fiscal health.

"Should the economy not rebound, it is necessary to take additional (stimulus) measures," he said.

He also said that the country's property market is showing signs of recovery with the volume of transactions increasing recently, but the recovery trend is not strong enough, underlining the need for sustained efforts to prop up the market. 

"A recovery in the asset market could help prevent the economy from slipping into a long-term and structural recession," Choi said. "The lost 20 years in Japan can also be blamed partly on the collapse of its asset market ... It is very important to run the market in a stable manner." 

As for concerns over falling tax revenue caused by the slowing economic recovery, Choi said that the tax revenue shortfall for this year might be "a little bit larger" than last year's 8.5 trillion won. (Yonhap)