FREQUENT typhoons and recent controversies involving top-level officials’ spending of public funds could derail the government’s fiscal performance in the third quarter, posing risks to the country’s economic growth target of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent this year, the lead economist of a major bank said.

“Combined with government underspending attributable to the Disbursement Acceleration Program [DAP] controversy and the negative effects of Glenda on Southern and other parts of Luzon are likely to have a drag on the third-quarter 2014 growth as well,” Emilio Neri Jr., Bank of the Philippine Islands lead economist, said in an e-mail to The Manila Times.