PH to reach upper middle income status by 2019, says World Bank economist
A World Bank economist said on Monday that the Philippines is on track to becoming an upper middle economy by next year.
According to the multilateral lender, an upper middle economy is defined as having a per capita income of $3,895 to $12,055.
World Bank senior economist Rong Qian said the country is “very close” to that range. The Philippines is currently categorized as a lower middle income economy.
Earlier, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia also made a similar claim saying the Philippines will break into the upper middle income rank by 2019.
On being poverty-free by 2040
The World Bank said that the Philippines would have to triple its per capita income in the next two decades in order to achieve its long-term goal of becoming a prosperous country free of poverty by 2040.
This means growing at an annual average rate of 6.5 percent in the next 22 years, which is faster than its average growth rate of 5.3 percent since 2000.
Mara K. Warwick, World Bank Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand, said that the country’s ability to sustain its current high growth rate depends on two basic factors — how it can accelerate investment in improving physical infrastructure and how it can better utilize the use of labor, capital, and technology to boost productivity.
via ABS-CBN News / Warren De Guzman
