The Philippines is one of the countries classified by the World Bank (WB) under the lower middle-income category, based on updated data.
It is also one whose income category was reported to have undergone a downward change, along with neighboring Indonesia and further afield, India.
Malaysia is categorized as an upper middle-income country although it, too, had undergone a downward income change from an earlier World Bank report.
As a lower middle-income country, the country’s gross national income or GNI rose from only $600 in 1987 to $3,400 in 2020.
GNI estimates, the World Bank said, are obtained from economists in World Bank country units who rely on official data published by the host countries themselves.
It said countries are classified as to their income as a country for analytical purposes and for the more practical goal of pricing the loans member countries like the Philippines obtain from the multilateral lender from time to time.
The Philippines is due for an update in July this year when its GNI will be calculated based on 2020 data, the World Bank said.
