Businessmen Tuesday said the devastation wrought by typhoon Ondoy in Metro Manila and nearby areas is only a temporary setback for the Metro Manila economy but not enough to pull the growth of the entire economy to a negative.

“It will have a pronounced impact on the Metro Manila economy for a while but not the entire economy. We still maintain our 1.9 percent growth target this year,” said Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Edgardo B. Lacson.

Lacson noted that those affected are not production centers like crop plantations and export zones but are mostly households, financial districts housing business process outsourcing operations and light manufacturing operations, which could easily recover.

The BPOs alone, Lacson said, are very agile that they could easily relocate their operations overnight to other areas.

Lacson stressed that the only major industrial area in Metro Manila is the Pandacan oil depot, which was spared by the typhoon.

“Mindanao, Visayas and other rice producing areas in Luzon have been spared from the wrath of typhoon Ondoy,” Lacson said adding that the, “biggest concentration of our economy have been spared like our agricultural production in Mindanao.”

Initial estimate of the damage caused by typhoon Ondoy was placed at P1.9 billion in infrastructure, farms and homes.

Jesus Arranza, president of the Federation of Philippine Industries, said that operations of some manufacturing facilities and factories that have been flooded can resume operations in two to three days time.

Arranza said that only a few FPI members have been affected but their operations are now back to normal.

“This could not setback the entire growth of the country’s economy because those affected are not crop plantations and industries but mostly urban dwellers,” Arranza said.