WHILE THE MARCOS administration economic managers are bragging about the Philippines being considered by the World Bank now an upper middle income economy, Filipinos don’t seem to care.
Most of us would probably say — so what?
As long as job creation has not been catching up with population, inflation keeps getting difficult for economic managers to contain and credit, especially for micro small and medium enterprises, farmers/fisherfolk and ordinary people continue to be very hard to obtain because of unreasonably high interest rates charged by banks and financial institutions, and most of all poverty still remains a nagging problem and literacy is eluding our youth—then such a label is meaningless to the people.
For so long as public utilities’ charges keep going up, thus eating up more of the shrinking income of Filipino families and the cost of education and healthcare remain unaffordable to many, what if we are an upper middle income country?
Such a label would only be good for the egos of economic managers and the administration officials who can’t and never will experience the difficult daily problems and sacrifices shouldered by the ordinary Pinoy and the decimating overly-burdened middle class.
On July 2, the World Bank proclaimed that the Philippines has reached UMIC status– something our government aspired for without doing much reform to improve the lot of the majority of Filipinos belonging to the C,D and E brackets and depend much on government dole-outs to subsist in this world.
The WB said being a UMIC, the Philippines reflected the economy’s broad-based expansion, really? Manufacturing has not improved any thereby jobs have become elusive to the majority, cost of living keeps rising but the peso value keeps dropping. Is this what it calls growth and expansion?
The bank’s latest country income classification showed the Philippines posted a record gross national income (GNI) per capita of $4,850, higher than the GNI per capita of $4,470 last year, when the Philippines narrowly missed the UMIC threshold by $26.
The latest increase in the Philippines’ GNI per capita prompted the World Bank to reclassify the country as an UMIC, a category for economies with GNI per capita ranging from $4,636 to $14,375.
“The Philippines achieved its reclassification through broad-based expansion. GDP grew at an average of 5.8% per year over five years, reflecting gains across all major industries, not a single sector boom, but an economy-wide shift,” the World Bank said in a blog post late Wednesday.
The Philippines was previously in the World Bank’s lower middle-income bracket, having failed to advance out of it since 1987.
The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) said strong performance across all industries helped raise the country’s GNI per capita by 8.5% in 2025.
“This confirms the resilience of the Philippine economy,” said DEPDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan. “Despite global and domestic shocks, we have relentlessly pursued inclusive growth, strengthened fundamentals, and remained on track with our development agenda.”
DEPDev said the new classification is expected to strengthen the country’s credit profile, boost investor confidence, and expand access to financing and higher-quality investments, which it said could generate better jobs for Filipinos, reported Business World.
The Philippines and Vietnam were among the five economies reclassified by the World Bank from lower middle-income to upper middle-income status, along with Jordan, Micronesia, and Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Togo moved from low-income to lower middle-income status.
Vietnam moved up to UMIC status after posting a GNI per capita of $4,970.
The Philippines remained ahead of Cambodia ($2,520), Laos ($2,150), and Myanmar ($1,320), which are still classified as lower middle-income economies with a GNI per capita between $1,176 and $4,635.
Malaysia ($12,380), Thailand ($7,690) and Indonesia ($5,120) remained as upper middle-income countries.
Singapore ($81,760) and Brunei ($34,790) are also still classified as high-income economies.
The World Bank computes a country’s GNI through the Atlas method, which serves as the basis of its income classifications — low, lower-middle, upper-middle and high. GNI refers to the total amount of money earned by its residents both inside and outside its borders.