External downside risks such as possible exit of Greece from the euro zone and international sanctions against Iran destabilized the South Korean economy, the country's top economic policymaker said Wednesday.

In a weekly crisis management meeting, Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan said that instabilities in the financial market remained strong although the market showed signs of stabilizing this week, saying that external risks dented the nation's steady recovery.

The minister said that Seoul hoped the upcoming European Union (EU) summit would find a constructive solution to ease market concerns over the region's debt crisis, urging the EU to take more comprehensive and essential measures to achieve the goal of both 'stability' and 'growth' together.

His remarks came after local think tanks and international organizations lowered the country's 2012 economic growth outlook amid deepening worries about the Europe woes.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) cut on Tuesday its 2012 economic growth outlook for South Korea to 3.3 percent from an earlier estimate of 3.5 percent. The Paris- based club of advanced nations cited weaker global economic growth stemming from deterioration in the euro zone as the major risk factor to the Asia's No.4 economy.

According to the survey of 41 economists by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), 73 percent of the respondents picked the European fiscal crisis as the biggest threat to the South Korean economy in the second half of this year.