MANILA Philippines AP The Philippine government won't hit its target of generating 500 billion pesos dlrs 12.6 billion in investments this year as Asia's financial crisis continues to cause businessmen to think twice about spending on new projects a government official said Tuesday. ``It would be difficult to hit our investment target for the year based on the latest figures we gathered'' Board of Investments Managing Director Melito Salazar said. The government's investment target has already been scaled down twice this year from an original 700 billion pesos dlrs 17.7 billion in January to a revised 550 billion pesos dlrs 13.9 billion in July. In the nine months through September 164.4 billion pesos dlrs 4.2 billion in investments were registered with the government 67 percent lower than the 498 billion pesos dlrs 12.6 billion in the year-earlier period. The government considers fresh capital infusion and expansion activities as new investments. Businessmen have said that the weakening economy is causing uncertainty among investors despite the country's generally better growth prospects than other Asian countries embroiled in the financial crisis. The Philippine economy expanded slightly in the third quarter of 1998 with the gross national product growing 0.8 percent from the year-earlier period. However gross domestic product shrank 0.1 percent. In the third quarter last year GNP growth was 5.2 percent while GDP growth was 4.9 percent. GNP measures a country's total output while GDP excludes income from abroad. APW19981201.1506.txt.body.html APW19981201.0769.txt.body.html