Philippines the only Founding Country of ASEAN still classified as Lower Middle Income

Philippines the only one of the Founding Countries of ASEAN still classified as a Lower Middle Income Country by the World Bank

I already discussed this before in a previous Post, but I would like to expand on it a bit more just to drive home a Point. So among the five founding Countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines is the only one Left that the World Bank (WB) still classifies as a “Lower Middle Income Country (LMIC).

ASEAN was founded in 1967, 58 Years ago by the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The WB started classifying Countries by Income Levels in 1978, but it wasn’t until 1989 that they started the Classification which is still being used now.

And right from that Point, in 1989 or 36 Years ago, Singapore was already classified as a “High Income Country (HIC)”. Malaysia was the first ASEAN Country to “graduate” to “Upper Middle Income Country (UMIC)” in 1996, or 29 Years ago.

Thailand followed next, becoming an UMIC in 2011, or 14 Years ago. And the latest ASEAN Country to reach UMIC Status was Indonesia which did it in 2020, or five Years ago. And that leaves the Philippines as the only Founding Country of ASEAN to still not reach UMIC Status even after almost 60 Years.

As I posted about before, Bong Bong Marcos (BBM) himself back in 2022 set the Target for the Philippines to become a UMIC by 2024, but obviously that did not happen, thanks to the Philippines unable to hit its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Targets the last several Years under his Administration.

And once again, the only Catholic Country in ASEAN and even Asia with a large Population continues to be the Laggard Country in Asia, a FAILED STATE, just like many Catholic Countries in Latin America.

SOURCES:
* https://datatopics.worldbank.org/world-development-indicators/stories/the-classification-of-countries-by-income.html
* https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/667381468339905228/pdf/PUB76820REPLACEMENT0WDR01989.pdf
* https://setkab.go.id/en/world-bank-indonesia-is-now-upper-middle-country/
* https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2011/08/02/thailand-now-upper-middle-income-economy
* https://www.undp.org/malaysia/blog/creating-pathways-inclusive-and-sustainable-development-upper-middle-income-country
* https://pia.gov.ph/asean-day/

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