Manila, July 3 -- The Marcos administration remains optimistic that the Philippines will reach an upper-middle income status, Malacanang said on Thursday.

This comes after the World Bank's latest country classification retained the Philippines as a lower-middle income economy, despite government projections to transition to upper-middle income status this year.

"Inaamin po natin na sa ngayon ay hindi pa natin natutulay ang upper-middle income status. Pero sa ngayon, maganda naman ang nagiging progreso ng ekonomiya dahil sa gumagandang gross national income per capita simula 2024 (We admit that as of now, we have not yet reached upper-middle income status. But there's good economic progress due to improving gross national income per capi...