SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s finance minister said on Monday that the authorities would take action in a pre-emptive manner if necessary to stabilise local financial markets, where volatility has increased due to external factors.

Minister Choo Kyung-ho made the remarks at the beginning of a scheduled meeting of top economic and finance officials, which also included the heads of the central bank and two financial markets regulatory agencies.

The meeting was convened as aggressive policy tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks and signs of slowing in most of the major economies have pulled down the won, bond and stock prices.

He did not elaborate on action the authorities might take.

Choo said external factors were mostly to blame for the increased volatility in the local markets, adding the country’s economic fundamentals remained strong, such as the current account balance still in surplus.