The Philippines’ population growth rate must be reduced by at least 0.24 percentage point while the economy must expand at an average of 6.3 to 6.6 percent annually, for the country to become a high middle economy by 2030, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said. In a discussion paper titled `Aspirations and Challenges for Economic and Social Development in the Philippines Toward 2030,` Josef Yap and Ruperto Majuca said that one of the challenges which slows down the country`s ability to have a sustained economic growth is the relatively high population growth rate. The paper cited data from the World Bank, which showed that in 2009, the country`s population growth rate was 1.79 percent.
