The Philippines has finally moved up to upper-middle-income status, breaking out of a lower-middle-income classification it held for nearly 40 years. According to new data from the World Bank, the country joined the upper-middle-income bracket, which requires a gross national income (GNI) per...
The World Bank has called for faster climate-proofing in the Philippines as floods continue to be a threat. And it doesn’t help that corruption continues to undermine the very infrastructure designed to protect lives, businesses, jobs, and the economy. The warning from the World Bank’s June 28...
The Philippines achieved its long-standing goal of attaining upper-middle-income-country (UMIC) status with a record-high gross national income (GNI) per capita in 2025, even as neighboring Vietnam made a bigger stride toward the same World Bank classification. The World Bank announced on Wednesday...
Vietnam widened its lead over the Philippines in terms of gross national income (GNI) per capita as the Southeast Asian neighbors both aspire to attain the World Bank’s upper-middle-income-country (UMIC) status. A World Bank board report dated June 18 and disclosed last Monday, June 29, showed...
The Philippine government has fully spent the World Bank financing supporting its flagship Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), marking the successful completion of a nearly six-year project that modernized the country’s social protection system while providing cash assistance to millions...
Philippine firms face mounting pressure to adapt to worsening climate risks as recurrent flooding erodes productivity, threatens jobs, and drives businesses to relocate, prompting the World Bank to call for faster investments in resilient infrastructure, energy efficiency, as well as renewable...
The Philippines scored below the regional average in the World Bank’s latest Human Capital Index Plus (HCI+), underscoring persistent gaps in health, education, and employment outcomes despite outperforming the average for lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). In an April 2026 human capital...
The Philippines, still under a state of national energy emergency, has secured a record $1.02-billion World Bank Group (WBG) financing package to help lower electricity costs, accelerate renewable energy (RE) adoption, and strengthen water services nationwide. In a press release dated June 25 and...
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved an up to $30-million equity investment in a regional infrastructure fund that will bankroll projects, including those in the Philippines, to support energy transition and digital infrastructure in Southeast Asia. Documents showed that the Manila-based...
The World Bank has urged the Philippines to prioritize the implementation of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act and expand waste-management infrastructure before imposing stricter restrictions on single-use plastics, saying a carefully sequenced approach offers the best chance of...
SINGAPORE — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is confident that more private-sector bidders will participate in the Philippines’ upcoming railway public-private partnership (PPP) projects as the government increasingly taps multilateral development banks (MDBs) to provide financing...
Maynilad Water Services Inc. has tapped International Finance Corp. (IFC) for a $500,000 infrastructure advisory services project aimed at strengthening the west zone concessionaire’s sustainability and resilience strategy. In a disclosure last Monday, June 15, IFC said the project was approved...
