The government’s goals of realizing for its people the vision set in the Ambisyon Natin 2040 of becoming a “prosperous, predominantly middle-class society where no one is poor” and establishing the Philippines as an upper middle-income economy clearly rest on the condition that the economy achieves sustained high growth. Scanning present socio-economic variables indicates that, although the country is not far from attaining these goals—especially becoming an upper middle-income economy—current headwinds could easily derail progress. These headwinds include persistent high inflation, particularly on food, frequent natural disasters caused by climate change, and the slowdown in the global economy due to trade protectionism and geopolitical tensions around the world. Nonetheless, implementation of the recent reforms intended to enhance competition and global integration (e.g. liberalization of the non-tradable sectors, tapping private sector savings to invest in infrastructure development and R&D, etc.) and ensuring efficient and accountable public administration both at the national and local levels are key to sustain growth. Additional efforts should be directed towards upskilling the workforce to maximize the use of technological development and addressing climate change and adaptation to prevent the majority of people from sliding back into poverty.