THE performance of the Philippine industry, alongside infrastructure scandals and global uncertainty, may have dragged down the growth of the Philippine economy in the third quarter of 2025, according to Department of Economy, Planning, and Development of the Philippines (DEPDev) Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan.
The country’s socioeconomic planning chief pointed out: ‘The industry is probably at its lowest point in recent years.’
‘I am not as optimistic as I used to be or as I have been given the data that has been coming out in recent weeks, particularly the performance of our industry,’ Balisacan told reporters on the sidelines of the 2025 Presidential Filipinnovation Awards National Competition press briefing on Monday.
Asked if the country’s growth rate will still be over 5 percent, the country’s socioeconomic planning chief said he would not want to preempt the final numbers, as the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will present the 2025 Third Quarter Performance of the Philippine economy on Friday, November 7.
Still, Balisacan did not falter when he said: ‘It was a challenging quarter,’ adding, ‘I would have expected [that], given all these scandals in the infrastructure, that you would expect [to weigh on] government spending particularly on construction, fixed capital formation.’
Other areas that may have slowed down, he added, would be the industry and services.
‘It’s partly, I suppose because we’re coming from global uncertainty, the effects of other factors. Of course, the typhoons and so many other things. So we’ll see if that assessment will come out,’ added Balisacan.
Moving forward, he said, ‘We are still looking at where those potential drags are and see if these are just temporary; and that we recover those grounds in the coming quarters.’
Meanwhile, the country’s socioeconomic planning chief called the country’s 6 percent GDP growth potential ‘quite high,’ adding that reaching this would mean facing head-on headwinds which are causing uncertainty.
‘Our economic fundamentals have remained strong. The potentials have remained strong. Our GDP growth potential is quite high, 6 percent and above. But reaching those potentials is another matter.and those are affected by instability, uncertainty. We’ll see,’ he pointed out.
In recent weeks, research institutions and think tanks have revealed their expectations regarding the country’s third quarter economic performance this year.
For one, the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA and P) in its latest Market Call report said the economy may slow down to a 5.2 percent pace in the third quarter due to ‘more weather disturbances and the popular uproar over the flood control corruption controversy.’
Meanwhile, ANZ Research said declining sales of passenger cars and consumer goods imports may have dragged the economy’s growth in the third quarter, adding that the ongoing corruption probe is likely to weigh on public infrastructure spending from fourth quarter onwards. (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2025/11/03/sliding-consumer-goods-car-sales-may-slow-q3-growth/)
In an interview with reporters two weeks ago, Balisacan said he sees ‘a bit of a slowdown’ in the economy in the third quarter, due to supply shocks such as typhoons and work suspensions.
However, the country’s socioeconomic planning chief hopes the economy’s growth rate in the third quarter will not be slower than the 5.5 percent posted in the second quarter.