Finance minister urges greater market confidence

South Korea's financial markets are reacting "sensitively" to international anxieties, the top economic policymaker said Wednesday, calling for more confidence in the nation's economic and financial fundamentals. "Financial and currency markets are reacting sensitively to external fear factors," Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan said in a weekly crisis management meeting. "Though the real economy remains on its recovery track and employment situations are improving, things are showing signs of slowing down based on sentiment indices." His remarks come as South Korea's financial markets tumbled on Tuesday on renewed fears over fiscal debt problems in Greece and a possible ripple effect on other European and global economies. The government rushed to soothe the market jitters, saying that the nation's economic and financial fundamentals remain strong and it is better prepared for a crisis than in 2008, when it was hard-hit by the global financial crisis. Bahk said that "excessive" uneasiness has a side effect on the real economy, adding that what the nation needs at this point is self-confidence when dealing with the increasing market volatility.