MANILA - The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) expressed confidence that the Philippines will post a 0.9% growth in the last 3 months of the year despite the large impact of recent typhoons on the country's economic output.

Acting NEDA Director General Augusto Santos told reporters that this would be driven mainly by higher household expenditures during the Christmas season, reconstruction efforts, and election spending.

A 0.9% growth on gross domestic product (GDP) would bring the country's full-year growth to 0.8%, hitting the low end of the government's 2009 growth targets.

"We'll still keep our economic growth target of 0.8% to 1.8% for the year," Santos said.

The continued decline in manufacturing caused the economy to grow slower than expected in the third quarter at 0.8%, bringing GDP growth for the first 9 months of the year to 0.7%.

The government had initially projected the country's GDP to rise by 1.6% to 2.6% during the period, picking up from an initial reading of a 1.5% growth in the second quarter.

The second-quarter GDP figure was eventually revised downward to 0.8%.

Earlier, the World Bank said damages and losses to crops, property, and infrastructure from typhoons "Ondoy" and "Pepeng" (international code names Ketsana and Parma, respectively) reached $4.4 billion or 2.7% of the country's GDP.

Despite this, the country's public-private sector reconstruction commission expressed optimism that it can recover the estimated $4.4 billion in damages caused by recent typhoons.