S. Korean president orders all-out efforts to minimize effects from Brexit

SEOUL - South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Monday ordered her senior advisors to make all-out efforts to minimize possible negative effects from Brexit, or British exit from the European Union (EU).

Park told a meeting with senior presidential aides that all available measures for market stabilization should be implemented to minimize possible negative impact on the South Korean economy while monitoring market situations 24 hours a day.

The president also urged officials to strengthen cooperation with the international community to stabilize financial markets as early as possible.

After the British vote on Friday to leave the EU, the benchmark KOSPI dropped 3.1 percent on the day, while the tech-savvy KOSDAQ index tumbled 4.8 percent after the issuance of a sidecar alert to halt the panic trading for five minutes.

The KOSPI started off a weak start on Monday with a 1.2 percent decline, but it trimmed earlier losses to trade 0.4 percent lower in the morning trade.

Stocks in Japan closed the morning transactions with a 1.4 percent advance on Monday, after tumbling 7.9 percent in the previous session. Chinese stocks traded 0.7 percent higher as of 11:45 am local time.

Park said external uncertainties facing the South Korean economy became more severe than ever, which requires a pan-governmental system to tackle emergency situations.

She noted that uncertainties surrounding the global financial market got bigger and that there are worries about the global trade weakening further.

South Korea's exports, which account for about half of the export-driven economy, reduced 6.0 percent in May from a year earlier, sustaining the longest monthly fall for 17 months.

Park, however, stressed that the economy has sufficient capability to deal with market shocks in consideration of external soundness and fiscal healthiness, ordering officials to make public the economy's capability for tackling the crisis.

The ratio of South Korea's short-term foreign debts to total external liabilities continued to fall from 43.1 percent in 2009 to 27.4 percent in 2015. The percentage of current account surplus to gross domestic product (GDP) increased from 3.7 percent to 7.7 percent in the cited period.