“The Philippines has cut its official poverty rate to below 10 per cent for the first time, a milestone officials hailed as proof that millions of Filipinos are climbing the economic ladder…

The Philippine Statistics Authority said poverty incidence fell to 9.7 per cent in 2025 – or about 11 million people – down from 15.5 per cent, or 17.5 million, in 2023. It marked the first time the national individual poverty rate had fallen into single digits.

Meanwhile, the percentage of families living in poverty also dropped from 10.9 per cent to 6.4 per cent over the same period.

The milestone comes a month after the World Bank reclassified the Philippines as an upper-middle-income country, after its gross national income reached US$4,850 per capita – above the bank’s US$4,636 threshold.”

From South China Morning Post.