The country’s chief economist expressed a less optimistic outlook for third-quarter growth, noting that both domestic—including the flood control corruption scandal—and external economic conditions may have influenced the possibly dismal performance.

“I am not as optimistic as I used to, or as I have been,” Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) Secretary and National Innovation Council (NIC) Vice-Chairperson Arsenio M. Balisacan said on the sidelines of the 2025 Presidential Filipinnovation Awards national competition press conference on Monday, Nov. 3.

“Given the data that have been coming out in recent weeks, and particularly the performance of our industry,” Balisacan said, “the industry is probably at its lowest point in recent years.”

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is scheduled to release the country’s third-quarter economic growth data on Friday, Nov. 7.

Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 5.5 percent in the second quarter of 2025, meeting the government’s downscaled full-year target range of 5.5 to 6.5 percent. 

“I think that the growth may not be as rosy as we expect, or as we had expected, but we’ll see what comes out on Friday,” Balisacan added.

Balisacan noted that apart from the recent scandals and issues in the infrastructure sector, government spending—particularly on construction and fixed capital formation—has also slowed down.

“We also noticed slowing down in other areas, ,industry, and services,” he said, noting that this stems from global uncertainty and recent typhoons, among other factors.

Balisacan emphasized that while the flood control infrastructure scandal contributed to the “drag” on growth, global uncertainty also played a significant role.

“We are still looking at where those potential drags are and seeing if these are temporary and that we would recover those grounds in the coming quarters,” he said.

He added that numerous work and class suspensions have also been observed during the third quarter amid the onslaught of a string of strong typhoons, which the government considers among the contributing factors to the slowdown.

However, Balisacan said that, “We expect those to be temporary. Our fundamentals—our economic fundamentals—have remained strong.”

“The potential remains strong. Our GDP growth potential is quite high, six percent and above. But reaching those potentials is another matter, and those are affected by instability and uncertainty,” Balisacan added.

(Ricardo M. Austria)