South Korea will face some tough challenges in 2016 as it moves to prop up growth that has been hit hard by the sluggish global economy, the top economic policymaker has said.

In a meeting with reporters late Thursday, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan predicted that overall conditions in 2016 may not improve much from this year. He cited potential fallouts from the planned U.S. interest rate hikes that can raise financial sector volatility and other persistent uncertainties.

"Everyone must be on guard because the new year promises to be full of difficulties," he stressed.

He said that while this year's economic report card failed to meet earlier expectations, such results are due to factors beyond the country's control.

South Korea's growth may expand less than 3 percent this year, down from 3.3 percent reached in 2014.

Choi, who doubles as deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs and is a three-term lawmaker, said if export growth had met expectations, Asia's fourth-largest economy would have grown by at least the upper-3 percent range and could have even topped the 4 percent mark.

"Instead of contributing to growth, which was almost always the case in the past, exports probably brought down gross domestic product numbers by about 1 percent this year," he argued.

Choi, who is expected to step down so he can run for re-election in next year's parliamentary polls, also said that the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak that claimed 38 lives, severely affected consumption and crippled certain service sectors in the second quarter, although the situation was resolved much more quickly than anticipated.

On predictions that the South Korean economy is in serious trouble, Choi maintained that while times are hard, some alarm bells being sounded are exaggerated.

"Some have said South Korea is heading toward another financial crisis, but all data is showing the country is doing better than most of its peers under difficult circumstances," he said. (Yonhap)