South Korea's finance minister held a meeting with the delegation head of global credit rating agency Fitch Ratings Inc. to exchange their views on the recent economic situation and the country's macroeconomic policies, the finance ministry here said Friday.

In a meeting with Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho in Seoul, Thomas Rookmaaker, head of Asia-Pacific sovereigns at Fitch, said South Korea has seen steady economic growth and maintained fiscal soundness, along with its efforts to push forward with sweeping structural reform, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.


At the same time, he added that Asia's fourth-largest economy should carefully cope with geopolitical issues related to North Korean provocations.

Yoo said the South Korean government has been making constant efforts to manage external and internal negative risks, take an expansionary stance to stimulate the economy, and carry out industry-wide reform.

The Fitch delegation visited South Korea for the annual consultation meetings with the finance ministry from Wednesday to Friday this week to look into the country's macroeconomic policies, including its mid- and long-term plans, and financial issues like household debt and corporate restructuring.

Fitch has maintained a stable "AA-" grade for South Korea since June 2012, while Standard & Poors upgraded the rating of Asia's fourth-largest economy to "AA" earlier this month, the third-highest level on the company's table. Moody's rated the country at "Aa2" in 2015. (Yonhap)