The chief of South Korea's central bank on Tuesday expressed worries over the country's sluggish exports, saying they are unlikely to rebound for the time being due to "factors that cannot be resolved in the short term."

"Exports have fallen for four straight months this year and data showed that the trend is continuing into May," Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said ahead of a meeting with economic professors and researchers.

While noting that sluggish global demand and low oil prices are factors that have hit economies around the world, the BOK chief said the country's heavy dependence on trade, as well as economic circumstances in neighboring Asian economies, is especially hampering growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

"(South Korea's) portion of exports to nominal gross domestic product stands at the 40 percent level, much higher than the 10 percent level of advanced economies, which means sluggish exports have a larger impact on the overall economy."

"Since factors that cannot be resolved in the short term, such as slowing growth in China and a weakening yen, are in effect, sluggish exports are quite worrisome," said Lee.

The country's overall outbound shipments came to $46.22 billion last month, down 8.1 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Going forward, the BOK governor said the central bank will step up monitoring of the financial market as U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen last week hinted at a rate hike this year.

"We are in a situation where we cannot help but closely monitor price fluctuations and trends in the global financial market," he said.

The BOK chief also said that the monetary policy committee will put a bigger emphasis on data in its monetary policy amid heightened uncertainties stemming from sluggish exports.

"We will see how much incoming data is in line with our forecast and comprehensively assess their impact on not only growth and consumer prices but also household debt," he said. (Yonhap)