‘Philippines elevating to upper-middle income status next year’

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines remains on track to become an upper-middle income economy in 2025, even as the government trimmed its economic growth target for this year, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

“Yes, we are,” NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in a press conference in Malacañang yesterday in response to whether the country is still on track to achieve upper-middle income status by next year following the lowered gross domestic product (GDP) growth goal for this year.

The government is now aiming to achieve six to seven percent GDP growth for this year from a previous target of 6.5 to 7.5 percent.

“Six to seven percent is quite a high growth and that will still fall within the realm of possibility for entry to the upper-middle income class. The threshold of almost $4,500 in gross national income (GNI) per capita should be there,” Balisacan said.

An upper-middle income country has a GNI per capita income range of $4,466 to $13,845.

The Philippines is classified by the World Bank as a lower-middle income country with a GNI per capita of $3,950.

Last year, the World Bank said the Philippines is expected to attain upper-middle income status by 2025 or 2026.

For 2025, the government is aiming for 6.5 to 7.5 percent growth, revised from the previous 6.5 to eight percent.

From 2026 to 2028, the government has retained its 6.5 to eight percent growth target.

Balisacan said the Philippines is also on track to reduce the poverty  incidence to single-digit level in 2028 from 18.1 percent in 2021.

In its Macro Poverty Outlook for the Philippines released earlier this week, the World Bank said it expects the country’s poverty incidence to reach single-digit level by 2026.

In particular, it said poverty incidence  measured using the poverty line for lower-middle income countries of $3.65 per day is expected to decline to 12.2 percent this year and to 9.3 percent in 2026.