MANILA - The Philippines likely expanded 1.6% to 2.6% in the third quarter from a year earlier, a senior government official said on Thursday.

According to acting National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Augusto Santos, this may be attributed to strong consumption as fueled by high remittance growth.

"Based on reports we've received, the low end is 1.6% and the high end is 2.6%," Santos told reporters. Official gross domestic product (GDP) growth data for the third quarter will be released next Thursday.

The Philippines recorded a GDP growth of 1.5% from April to June, an improvement from the revised 0.6% in the previous quarter. With the projected third quarter GDP growth, Santos said the Philippines is on track to meeting the government's 0.8% to 1.8% target this year.

"We're on track to achieve the 0.8% to 1.8% full-year growth target," he said.

Earlier, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said recent storms that hit the Philippines will likely shave off 0.4% from the country's GDP growth in the second half of 2009.

Specifically, the agency said typhoons "Ondoy" and "Pepeng" (international code names Ketsana and Parma, respectively), may have reduced growth by 0.2% in the third quarter, and could trim fourth-quarter growth by 0.6%.

The twin storms triggered massive flooding in Metro Manila and some areas of Luzon in late September and early October, causing billions of pesos in damage.

Despite this, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the World Bank are expecting a strong rise in remittance inflows in the coming months as overseas Filipino workers send more monetary assistance to families whose properties were damaged by the 2 typhoons. With a report from Reuters