THE Philippines is unlikely to lose its newly attained upper-middle-income status unless it experiences a severe deterioration in its political economy, a Cabinet official said.
“The possibility of us going back to lower-middle-income class is, I think, quite remote,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told reporters on Monday.
“Unless, you know, you have certainly a very bad development in our political economy. But we don’t see that, and we hope that we continue to progress in our push for reforms.”
The World Bank recently upgraded the Philippines from lower-middle-income status after the gross national income (GNI) hit $4,850 in 2025, reaching the upper middle-income threshold of $4,636 to $14,375.
Balisacan also said his optimism was grounded in the structural reforms implemented over several administrations, many of which have made the economy more open and responsive to investment opportunities.
He noted that despite political developments over the years, successive governments have generally maintained pro-growth economic reforms.
“If there is one thing that we have learned over the last three decades or so, it is that regardless of the political noises, we haven’t really reversed good economic reforms,” the Department of Economy, Planning and Development chief said.
“The strategy to get the economy moving in the direction toward growth has not been reversed.”
Balisacan said the government was also aiming to increase the number of middle-income Filipinos.
“What we are hoping to achieve by 2040 is not just the high income in the World Bank classification but to see that a much larger part of our population has reached the middle-income class,” he said.
“We [want Filipinos to] have this strong and stable life... [in a] society that lives comfortably in communities that are resilient to shocks and so on,” he added.
Amid concerns that upper-middle-income status was not being felt by ordinary Filipinos, Balisacan said the milestone should not obscure the country’s immediate economic challenges.
“Our responsibility today is to assess where the economy stands in the middle of 2026,” he said. “And that picture is necessarily more nuanced.”
Balisacan said the government’s priorities for the second half of 2026 were focused on restoring confidence and strengthening economic growth.
This will require accelerating the implementation of strategic infrastructure and other high-impact public investments while encouraging greater private sector participation.
Faster project implementation, he added, will stimulate economic activity, improve connectivity, enhance productivity, and create quality jobs.
“Our task now is to restore a higher and more sustainable growth path,” Balisacan said, “one that is underpinned by rising productivity and innovation, resilient to shocks and expands opportunities for every Filipino to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from economic progress.”