U.S. Federal Reserve is not expected to drive global financial markets into panic with its exit from quantitative easing, South Korea's senior economic policymaker said Thursday.

"(The U.S. exit) will not go so far as to drive markets into panic. Bernanke just explained the stages of exit from quantitative easing," Vice Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho told foreign correspondents.

Choo noted that Bernanke's comments eliminated uncertainties in the global financial market, stressing that the possible exit would be based on the Fed's confidence over the U.S. economic recovery.

Following the two-day policy meeting, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said overnight that the U.S. central bank may vary the pace of bond purchases depending on the evolving economic conditions. He said that the Fed was likely to begin reducing the pace of quantitative easing later this year, before bringing it to an end by the middle of next year.

After his comments, bonds and stocks here tumbled. Three-year Korea Treasury Bond (KTB) yields traded above 2.9 percent, surging from the Wednesday's close of 2.81 percent. The benchmark KOSPI sank more than 2 percent on the main bourse.

Touching on the market response, Choo said that overreaction would be made in the financial market at an early stage, but the vice minister noted that the market will end up converging to economic fundamentals.

The official said that Bernanke's comments implied his confidence over the recovery, adding that the improved external conditions would help boost the South Korea economy, which depends on exports for around half of its production. Endi

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