Secretary Arsenio Balisacan (second from left), NEDA chief, at the “Saturday News Forum.” (Photo from the forum organizers)
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has moved its target to reach upper middle-income status from 2024 to 2025, Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, chief of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said at the “Saturday News Forum” in Quezon City.
It was President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who said in his first State of the Nation Address that the Philippines was eyeing to reach the upper middle-income status by 2024.
Marcos even told the United Nations General Assembly in September that the Philippines was on track to reaching a higher income status by 2023.
However, Balisacan said the country ran into setbacks, such as the sharp contraction of the economy in 2020 and the sharp depreciation of the peso this year, sinking to a record low of 59:$1 in October.
“The entry to that category of countries, upper-middle-income country, will now be in 2025,” Balisacan said.
The Philippines is currently classified as a lower-middle-income economy by the World Bank.
Its latest gross national income (GNI) per capita rose from $3,430 in 2020 to $3,640 in 2021. GNI refers to the total income generated by a country’s residents within and outside its borders.
The latest GNI of the country still fell short of the World Bank’s new GNI per capita threshold.
The new thresholds for GNI per capita for 2022-2023 are:
- $1,085 or less for low-income countries
- $1,086 to $4,255 for lower-middle-income countries
- $4,256 to $13,205 for upper-middle-income countries
- $13,205 and higher for high-income countries