PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his economic team are confident the Philippines will be able to reach upper-middle income status within the administration’s term.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro, in a briefing Thursday, acknowledged the country is not able to realize this goal this year as initially planned.
“We admit that we have not yet reached upper-middle income status. But there’s good economic progress because the gross national income per capita has been improving since 2024,” Castro said in Filipino.
She said the Marcos administration would continue to work hard and even double its efforts to attain its goal of reaching the upper-middle income status despite developments in the world.
Asked if the administration is confident that it can achieve the status within Marcos’s term, Castro replied in Filipino: “The president, the economic team, and the whole administration is always positive. We can do it.”
Marcos has three years remaining in his six-year term, which ends in 2028.
On Wednesday, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said the economic team expects “to achieve UMIC status by the end of this year or next year.”
The latest country classification report of the World Bank showed that while the Philippines posted a record-high gross national income (GNI) per capita of USD4,470 – higher than the USD4,230 GNI in the previous year – the level remains in the lower-middle income status.
The World Bank said countries need to reach the USD4,496 to USD13,935 GNI per capita to be considered an upper-middle income country.
