Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the government remains remains optimistic that despite lower growth in the third quarter, the economy will rebound.

"The Philippines has recorded growth of 7.1 percent in the third quarter... Although it is lower than 12 percent growth in the second quarter, it is still good news because the growth happened during the implementation of the stricter quarantine because of the effect of the Delta variant," Roque said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

"Our economic team and the whole administration are confident that we will be able to return to rapid and more inclusive growth," he added.

Roque said the Philippines' economic team said third quarter growth of 7.1 percent ''is among the highest third quarter growth in ASEAN and in the East Asian region."

Roque expressed confidence that the Gross Domestic (GDP) growth will improve as the government has started to open up the economy.

"According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the major economic sectors recorded positive growth of 7.9 percent and services of 8.2 percent," he said.

"We are expecting to increase these and the other sectors because we are opening up the businesses and we are easing the economy under the Alert Level 2 in Metro Manila," said Roque. Robina Asido/DMS