But Agriculture Department said damage to rice paddies already worth P3.1 billion

MANILA - Typhoon 'Ondoy' (international name Ketsana) damaged P108.9 million worth of infrastructure and crops, according to an official of the economic planning agency.

In his presentation during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Augusto B. Santos said that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for 2009 may be reduced due to the impact of typhoon Ondoy.

Thus, Santos said the inter-agency Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) may reduce the growth (GDP) assumption for 2009 to 0.7% to 1.7% from the earlier forecast of 0.8 -1.8%.

"Using the latest available figures from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and the NEDA Regional Offices and Office of Civil Defense on the impact of damages caused by typhoon Ondoy, our preliminary estimate shows that the recent storm could reduce the real GDP growth rate in full year 2009 by at least 0.043 percentage points," Santos said.

The typhoon hit the country's economic and political capital, Metro Manila, and surrounding areas, including rice-growing provinces in the main Luzon island. Santos noted that the typhoon affected about 90,000 families in the country as it brought a 40-year record-breaking, 41.6-centimeters total rainfall in a single day.

Earlier, an offical from the Agriculture Department said the massive flooding damaged rice paddy amounting to some 180,212 tons, which are already valued at about P3.1 billion.

The damaged impact on crops is equivalent to about 2.8% of the country's fourth-quarter target of 6.48 million tons, Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras said.