The Philippines remains a lower-middle-income economy that has slow movement as compared to its neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, according to the World Bank's (WB) updated classification of economies for fiscal year 2024.
The Washington-based lender's data showed that the Philippines' gross national income (GNI) per capita, or the country's final income for the year 2022, is $3,950.
This indicated that the country is still at the bracket of lower-middle-income economies category set by the World Bank ranging $1,136 to $4,465 per capita.
The income bracket was raised from $1,086 to $4,255 a year ago.
The same classification applied to Myanmar ($1,210), Cambodia ($1,700), Timor-Leste ($1,970), Laos ($2,360), and Vietnam ($4,010) in Southeast Asia.
Upper middle-class countries include Malaysia ($11,780), Thailand ($7,230), and Indonesia ($4,580) which moved up this year from a lower middle-income status.
High-income nations include Singapore ($67,200) and Brunei ($31,410).
According to the data, the GNI per capita of the nation increased steadily as it recovered from a pandemic-wracked 2020, reaching $3,950 in 2022, or roughly 218,000 per Filipino.
Meanwhile, President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr.’s administration aims reaching upper middle income status by 2023 as it is certain that the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) for 2023–2028 could help in achieving the goal.
To reach this goal, the country must have a GNI per capita of between $4,466 and $13,84.
The country's GNI per capita was $3,770 in 2019, $3,350 in 2020, and $3,550 in 2021.
The multilateral lender updates the income classification of countries each year on July 1, based on the GNI per capita of the previous calendar year. The latest classification is good until June 30 of next year.
