National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said that the country's gross national income (GNI) per capita must have a 6.7 percent growth to be able to reach the upper middle-income status.

On the sidelines of the launch of National AI Strategy Roadmap 2.0, Balisacan said that the country is nearing the status as the global threshold is $4,500, whereas the country already had a GNI per capita of $4,230 in 2023.

READ: Philippines stuck in lower-middle income group as World Bank raises threshold

“Together with the lower threshold to become an upper middle income, if you look at that growth rate, it’s only 6.7 percent,” he told reporters.

“The report actually that was just launched by World Bank actually proved me, I mean, it's consistent with what I was sharing with you,” he added.

The World Bank has earlier hiked the upper-middle income threshold to GNI per capita of $4,516-14,005 in 2023 and also raised the lower-middle income category to $1,146-4,515.

Since around 1989, the country has been classified as a lower middle-income country, and its ASEAN counterparts almost left it behind for the 2025 fiscal year.

Indonesia ascended to the upper-middle income category with GNI per capita of $4,580 in 2022 and to to $4,870 in 2023; while Malaysia and Thailand were already classified as upper-middle income countries, with GNI per capita of $11,970 and $7,180, respectively, in 2023.

Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos were among the ASEAN countries besides the Philippines that were still in the lower middle-income bracket.

Vietnam already surpassed the Philippines in this category in 2022 when it increased its GNI per capita to $4,010 from $3,590, while the country had only $3,950.

Nevertheless, the NEDA chief remained firm that the ambition to hike up its World Bank classification is “at reach and achievable.”

Balisacan already said last week that the upper-middle income status could be achieved in “late 2025 or early 2026."