Considering that other countries are in recession, a local analyst said that the Philippines’ third quarter growth of 4.6 percent is a surprise.

"This is better than we expected considering that various indicators of economic activity through the third quarter appeared mixed—electricity sale, fuel consumption, retail sales, external trade, remittances and bank lending," Jojo Gonzales of the Phil. Equity Partners, Inc., said.

Gross domestic product (GDP) reached 4.6 percent for the third quarter, lower than the 7.1 percent reported during the same period last year, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NCSB) said last week.

"Either the third quarter GDP number largely pre-date the carnage in the global financial sector or the Philippines is more disconnected from the world financial scene than we thought," Gonzales added.

Although the latest figure fell within the revised targets set by economic managers of 4.1 to 4.8 percent, it nevertheless is far below than government’s original projections of 6.3 to 7 percent.

Similarly, gross national product (GNP) also fell to 6.5 percent for the said period from 9.1 percent last year.

Besides covering the amount of goods and services produced by the economy, GNP includes income earned by Filipinos abroad minus the amount earned by foreigners residing locally.

Net income factor income from abroad declined to 24.7 percent from 31.9 percent during the period.

According to the NSCB, the agriculture, fishery, and forestry sectors declined to 2.5 percent from last year’s 5.7 percent.

The services sector also reported a slowdown, growing only by 3.7 percent from eight percent.