South Korea's finance minister said Monday that he will take all measures including frontloading of the state budget to counter possible downside risks in the first quarter in a bid to prop up the sluggish economy.

"If I take up duties as the deputy prime minister for economic affairs, I will do my best to bring the South Korean economy back on track and make it healthier," Yoo Il-ho, who was tapped last month as the minister of strategy and finance, said in his confirmation hearing.

"I will make efforts to keep the recovery trend alive by taking an expansive macroeconomic policy position. And I will implement active measures such as frontloading of fiscal spending to deal with any economic risks in the first quarter of this year."

The first quarter is critical because it can set the growth pace for the rest of the year.

 Yoo, who will be the third finance minister of the Park Geun-hye administration following incumbent Choi Kyung-hwan, is regarded as an economic expert after having worked for the Korea Development Institute and the Korea Institute of Public Finance for two decades. The two-term lawmaker from the ruling Saenuri Party also briefly led the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport last year.

He will be tasked with getting the economy back on its feet as its growth falters in the face of weak exports, industrial output and investments.

The finance ministry recently lowered the growth estimated for 2016 from 3.1 percent, while global investment banks are predicting an average 2.6 percent growth for Asia's fourth-largest economy.

Its exports, the country's key economic driver, dropped for 12 months in a row, raising concerns that the country is losing steam.

The researcher-turned-politician said he will focus on restructuring the economy and conduct all-out reform in the public, labor, education and financial sectors to develop a new growth engine.

"I will also make efforts to improve the structure of household loans, encourage corporate restructuring and retain fiscal soundness in order to prevent such debt risks from spreading to the entire economy," said Yoo.

Critics called for tighter control on ballooning household lending in the face of a U.S. rate hike and a slowdown in China, with the total amount reaching 1,160 trillion won in September.