MANILA -- The government expects the Philippine economy to continue expanding in the fourth quarter despite the devastation wrought by typhoon 'Lando', ending the year with growth of around 6 to 6.5 percent.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said damage to agriculture and infrastructure from typhoon stood at over Php7 billion.

“The damage is not so much for a Php12-trillion economy,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the press briefing on the sustainable development goals.

Balisacan added that cost of typhoon ‘Lando' represents only 0.6 percent of value-added agriculture. Strong typhoon Lando struck extreme northern Luzon earlier this week.

“So for the entire GDP (gross domestic product), (the impact is) much lower. What is important is its (typhoon) impact on people's lives, their assets, their livelihoods; it takes time for them to recover. We have to find alternative jobs for them,” he said.

Balisacan, who is also National Economic and Development Authority director-general, added there were other positive drivers that could offset the minimal negative impact of the 'Lando' on the fourth-quarter growth.

“Government spending, I'm hoping that it will continue to accelerate because there are improvements that we saw in July, August and September and the rest of the year. That will (also) help offset negative developments in exports; our exports (register a) negative growth,” he said.

Balisacan said a 15 to 20-percent increase in the government spending translates to a 2 percentage points in the country's GDP.

While government spending only shared about 12 percent of GDP, it affected the performance of the private sector, he said.

With this, the NEDA chief sees a 6 to 6.5-percent full year GDP growth, slightly lower than the government's growth target of 7 percent for 2015.

Balisacan earlier said achieving a 6 to 6.5-percent full-year GDP growth would still enable the Philippines maintain its position as one of Asia's best performers.

The domestic economy grew by 5.6 percent in the second quarter, bringing the first-semester GDP growth at 5.3 percent.*PNA

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