Romania has annually closed an average of two percentage points of the gap with the European average. In 2000, Romania’s GDP per capita (at purchasing power parity) stood at around 25% of the EU average, but currently, this figure exceeds 75%, said Csaba Balint, a member of the Board of Director of the National Bank of Romania (BNR). An important role was played by the dynamic increase in labor productivity, Balint believes, and Romania had the fastest growth in the CEE region. This positive trend was largely supported by economic restructuring: in 2000, almost 45% of the employed population was involved in agriculture, followed by industry (22%) and market services (21%). currently, the weight has shifted significantly towards market services with a much higher added value. Within the services sector, certain categories such as IT&C have shown exceptionally fast growth. If we analyze the share of the added value of the IT&C segment in the national economies, Romania is in the top 5 of the EU countries. In addition to the country’s capital, there are numerous regional economic centers – such as Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Brasov, Iasi, Constanta or Craiova, which play an important role in development. The seven most important economic poles in Romania contribute to more than 50% of the national GDP. All counties in Romania have made significant progress in the last almost two and a half decades in terms of GDP per capita, but regional disparities have increased, said the BNR expert. In the current global context, characterized by uncertainty and major structural changes, Romania must be prepared to respond to some challenges: the aging of the population, the transition to a green economy, digitization, geopolitical tensions and global fragmentation, as well as the impact of artificial intelligence, with all its aspects positives and associated risks, the economist concluded.
The number of people in Romania at risk of poverty stood at 3.59 million people in 2024, 375,000 fewer than in 2023, representing a 9.4% decrease, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics, or INS. Despite the improvement, nearly one in five Romanians was affected by poverty last year. According to INS, 19% […]
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Cluj-Napoca carried out multiple searches on Tuesday, July 1, at the Sibiu International Airport and the Sibiu County Council as part of an investigation into suspected fraud involving a EUR 54 million EU-funded infrastructure project. A total of 24 locations were searched across Bucharest, Brașov, and Sibiu county, […]
A Romanian taxi driver who scammed 90-year-old Nigerian Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka was detained by police on Sunday, June 29, according to media reports. On Friday, June 27, the venerable Nigerian arrived at Bucharest's Otopeni Airport. He got into a taxi and asked to be taken to a hotel downtown. At the destination, the […]
Costin Șerban, a Romanian entrepreneur, is digitalizing the construction sector in the United Kingdom with an ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution developed over 12 years and an investment of GBP 1.6 million (EUR 1.86 million). Șerban’s cloud-based ERP platform is called Abilo, was developed by the Romanian IT company Obi Systems, and is dedicated to […]
Border checks between Bulgaria and Romania have officially been lifted on July 1, as part of the implementation of the Schengen Agreement. The lifting marks the end of the transitional period of heightened control at the internal border, which had remained in place for six months following their accession to the Schengen area by land […]
Remus Vulpescu became CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) on Tuesday, July 1, taking over from Adrian Tănase as the stock exchange grapples with a market dominated by government bonds. Vulpescu, 53, is a graduate in political and legal sciences from the University of Bucharest and holder of an EMBA obtained in 2017. He […]
