MANILA - Philippine farm output may have shrunk by as much as 2 percent in the last quarter of 2016 from a year ago after a strong typhoon damaged crops and washed away livestock in central provinces last month, the agriculture minister said on Tuesday.

Based on an updated estimate, Typhoon "Nina" (international name: Nock-ten) caused total damage worth P5.47 billion ($110 million) to the agriculture sector, including losses in rice and corn, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol told reporters.

The storm lashed across the Bicol and Southern Luzon regions on Dec. 26, bringing down trees and power lines, and displacing more than 300,000 people who spent Christmas in evacuation shelters.

Piñol did not give a new forecast for full-year 2016 farm output, which he earlier had seen to increase 3.5 percent to 5 percent from the previous year.

Agriculture accounts for about a tenth of the country's gross domestic product, but Piñol wants to raise the sector's contribution to overall economic output to 20 percent.

The government is scheduled to release fourth quarter GDP data on Jan. 26. Last month, the economic planning agency said 2016 economic growth may possibly top 7 percent.

This year the country's farm output could grow between 7 percent and 8 percent as the Southeast Asian nation looks forward to ship more agricultural products to markets such as China, Piñol said on Dec. 20.