MANILA, Philippines — The country’s recent ascent to upper-middle income country (UMIC) status will not affect the World Bank’s lending program for the Philippines.
The multilateral lender said the income upgrade is also expected to encourage foreign investments into the Philippines.
“From the World Bank perspective, moving to upper-middle income country will not affect our program. Our lending will not change. Our program will remain the same,” World Bank division director for the Philippines Zafer Mustafaoglu said in an interview with “Money Talks” aired over One News yesterday.
Under its country partnership framework for the Philippines for 2025 to 2031, the World Bank aims to improve Filipinos’ quality of life by expanding opportunities and strengthening resilience.
The framework focuses on protection for the poor, education, health, job creation, resilience, digital connectivity and encouraging private investment.
With the Philippines’ recent entry into the upper-middle income grouping, Mustafaoglu said the World Bank would be focusing on supporting the country’s reform measures.
‘Upper-middle income country status is a milestone, but it’s not the end. It is important to continue focusing on key reform areas, key bottlenecks to overcome and continue supporting the country,” he said.
He said that the World Bank would continue to support the Philippines in terms of infrastructure, addressing learning gaps, health, as well as digitalization.
He also said that the World Bank is focused on helping the Philippines mitigate the impact of the Middle East crisis, particularly on the poor.
While the upper-middle income status is expected to encourage foreign investments to the country, he also said that creating a good business environment is important.
“When I look at the Philippines, opening a firm is still a challenge. It takes 75 days in the Philippines compared to one to three days in neighboring countries,” he said.
He said the opening of businesses is very important for job creation and for economic growth.
While Philippine economic growth slowed to 2.8 percent in the first quarter, the World Bank expects the economy to recover after this year.
Mustafaoglu said that the World Bank expects the economy to post an average growth of around 5.5 percent in 2027 and 2028.
Earlier, the World Bank said it expects the Philippine economy to grow by 3.7 percent this year, within the government’s revised 3.5 to 4.5 percent growth target for this year. The economy grew by 4.4 percent in 2025.