MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines expects unmilled rice production to fall in the second and third quarters because of drier than usual weather, government data showed on Monday.

Unmilled rice output for the second quarter is forecast to drop 9.4% from a year ago to 3.11 million tons, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics said in a report.

That would bring output in January-June to 6.6 million tons, down 10.5% from the same period last year.

Third-quarter production is projected to drop 3.7% to 3.39 million tons, it said