The International Monetary Fund(IMF) has advised South Korea to manage its debt with a long-haul plan so it could also handle long-term challenges from its aging population while tackling the pandemic. 

Andreas Bauer, Korea mission chief for the IMF, gave the recommendation in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. 

Bauer said Korea’s debt management will remain viable in the short-term thanks to its strong fundamentals, which include a strong manufacturing sector and a quality labor force. 

However, he pointed out that healthcare costs and other liabilities linked with population graying is a concern, urging the country to ensure that debt will not explode later when the aging issue becomes more serious. 

In an outlook earlier this month, the IMF projected South Korea’s government debt load to rise from 53-point-two percent of the country's gross domestic product this year to 69-point-seven percent by 2026. 

Meanwhile, Bauer assessed the country's fiscal policy against COVID-19 as effective in cushioning its impact. The agency raised its growth outlook for South Korea this year to three-point-six percent from three-point-one percent.