MANILA, Nov 7, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The Philippines on Friday cited typhoons and an ongoing scandal over bogus flood control projects in reporting third-quarter economic growth of just four percent, its lowest quarterly growth in four years.

The disappointing reading comes as the archipelago nation reels from the impact of Typhoon Kalmeigi, which this week cut a swathe of destruction through the country's centre, killing at least 188 people and leaving 135 missing.

Economic planning minister Arsenio Balisacan said Friday that the 4 percent growth for July-September was largely the result of the corruption scandal and natural disasters.

Achieving even the lower end of the government's yearly growth target of 5.5-6.5 percent, already revised downward from 6-8 percent, would now be "challenging", he conceded at a news briefing.

Public concern over so-called ghost flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars likely contributed to a slowdown in household consumption to 4.1 percent from 5.2 percent a year ago, Balisacan said.

"Consumer confidence may have been affected by the ongoing probes and discussions on government infrastructure spending," he said, adding that the cancelling of "school, work and travel activities due to typhoons" also likely dampened household spending.

The scandal's clearest impact, however, came in the construction sector, where spending nosedived dramatically.

Government statistician Dennis Mapa said infrastructure spending in the quarter fell 26.2 percent, the most since a 28.6 percent drop in 2011 that accompanied a scandal over pork-barrel spending.

But Jesus Felipe, economics professor at Manila's De La Salle University, said the government's explanation for the third-quarter performance was unconvincing.

"The truth is that typhoons (which happen every year) and corruption cannot fully explain the four percent growth," he told AFP, adding that targets of six percent and higher were simply unrealistic.

On Wednesday, governor Pamela Baricuatro of Cebu province, home to more than 70 percent of Kalmaegi's death toll, explicitly connected the flood-control scandal to what her spokesman called "unusual" flooding in a cluster of subdivisions.

"You begin to ask the question why we're having terrible flash floods here when you have 26.6 billion pesos ($452 million) for flood control projects (in the national budget)," she said in a TV interview.

She added that her inspection team had failed to find a single flood project completed to government standards.

While dozens of politicians and public works officials have been implicated in the spiralling corruption scandal, no charges have been filed so far.