MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is unlikely to meet the end-of-plan (EOP) targets on economic growth, debt and salaried workers under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) by 2028, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The 2025 Statistical Indicators on Philippine Development (StatDev) report, released by the PSA, showed that the country has a low likelihood of achieving the EOP targets for gross domestic product (GDP) growth, outstanding debt and the percentage of wage and salaried workers in private establishments.
StatDev tracks the progress and likelihood of achieving development goals and priorities under the PDP 2023-2028.
“The latest data showed low likelihood of achieving its EOP target (GDP) growth rate of six to seven percent,” PSA said.
The economy grew at a slower pace of 4.4 percent last year from 5.7 percent in 2024.
Economic growth slowed to 2.8 percent in the first quarter, the weakest performance in five years, as the flood control scandal and high prices dampened consumer and investor confidence.
Recently, the Development Budget Coordination Committee lowered the economic growth target to five to six percent for the years 2027 to 2030 amid domestic and global headwinds.
In terms of the outstanding national government (NG) debt stock-to-GDP ratio, the PSA said the pace of progress also suggested a low likelihood of achieving the EOP target of 58 to 61 percent.
Last year’s NG debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 63.2 percent from 60.7 percent in 2024.
As for the percentage of wage and salaried workers in private establishments to total employed workers, the PSA said there is a low likelihood of achieving the EOP target of 53 to 55 percent.
The percentage of wage and salaried workers in private establishments declined slightly to 50 percent last year from 50.1 percent in 2024.
Meanwhile, the country has a high likelihood of achieving the EOP targets on the deficit-to-GDP ratio, food inflation, headline inflation, unemployment rate, underemployment rate, Global Innovation Index rank and poverty incidence by 2028.
Regarding Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, the PSA said the country “showed medium likelihood of attaining the EOP target of $5,882 to $6,081.”
The GNI per capita rose to $4,850 last year from $4,470 in 2024. This enabled the country to attain upper-middle income status under the World Bank’s income classification.
StatDev also showed that, of the 534 assessed indicators across the 14 development sectors in the PDP Mid-term Update, 322 indicators or 60.3 percent, showed a medium or high likelihood of achieving the EOP targets in 2028.
Of the 14 evaluated sectors, five demonstrated strong progress, including services, competition, justice, employment and human and social development.
Meanwhile, the country made average progress in science and technology, trade and investment, infrastructure, governance, agriculture and agribusiness, social protection, and the macroeconomy.
Sectors where the country showed poor progress are in the environment and industry.