The Marcos administration is aiming to raise Filipinos’ average earning to around P20,000 per month in two years, an income level that would propel the Philippines towards the much coveted upper-middle income status.

From the current per capita income of $3,549 or roughly P197,692 at current exchange rate, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said the new administration is targeting to ascend to $4,250 in 2024, equivalent to around P236,752.

Balisacan said the target would be attained as long as the country’s economy grows on an average of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent this year and 6.5 percent to 8.0 percent next year.

“At the rate we are growing and assuming that we will achieve the 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent growth this year and the 6.58 percent next year, we should be reaching that minimum of $4,250 dollars in 2024,” Balisacan said.

“By that time then we’ll become a member of the so called upper middle income class,” he added.

Per World Bank classification, a country is considered an upper middle-income economy if its gross national income per capita is between $3,996 and $12,375.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Philippines was already on the verge of becoming an upper middle-income economy.

Balisacan said meeting the required pace of economic expansion will be boosted by the government’s renewed effort to raise more revenues through better tax administration.

“It’s so crucial that we are able to grow quickly and sustain that growth because that is really more sustainable way of reducing poverty and achieving greater distribution of opportunities,” Balisacan said.

Aside from higher income, Balisacan said the Marcos administration would cut the poverty level from to single digit at the end of the administration of President Marcos’ term.

Poverty incidence among Filipinos increased by 2.6 percentage points to 23.7 percent in the first half of 2021 from 21.1 percent in the first semester of 2018, based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Balisacan said to achieve these targets, the National Economic and Development Authority would push for necessary measures to raise the country’s economic performance.

He said the economic reforms in the past two decades, including under the Duterte administration, encouraged stakeholders to expect greater things from the Philippine economy.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Chino S. Leyco

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