Romania has a higher GDP per capita than Bulgaria. We are separated by about 20 percentage points. We were decisively moving away from Bulgaria. But we have a much higher GDP per capita than in some eurozone countries, for example, than in Greece, than in Slovakia, Croatia, Latvia, and we are very close to Hungary, explained Ionuc Dumitru, chief economist of Raiffeisen at the organized event. conference of the National Bank. “We probably surpassed Portugal or Poland in 2022,” Dumitru also said.

The situation gets complicated when we dig into the details and look at the situation in each individual district.

Out of 42 districts, only 15 had faster dynamics of GDP per capita than the national average, the other 27 had weaker dynamics, which worsened their relative positioning

(To see the situation in each county, click on a county to view data)

The richest district, which is undoubtedly Bucharest. It has 263% of the European Union average in terms of purchasing power parity, in other words, it is more than 2.5 times richer than the average. Unfortunately, we are also well represented at the other end of the ranking.

The poorest district of the country is Vaslui. The ratio between them (Bucharest and Vaslui) is almost six to one, that is, six times higher GDP per capita in Bucharest than in Vaslui, explained Ionuc Dumitru.

By the way, this ratio is one of the highest in Europe, and if we look at the county level, we will see that over the last 20 years, out of 42 counties, only 15 had a faster GDP per capita growth than the national average. The other 27 had a lower development rate, which worsened their relative location.

The counties performing the fastest in real convergence are Bucharest, Cluj, Timișoara, Alba, Salai, Tulcea and Sibiu. The counties that lost the most in relative distribution compared to the national average are Covasna, Ilfov, Constanța, Harghita, Mures, Galați, Vrança, Bihor and Bacău.

We have practically the Romania of extremes

We have the Bucharest-Ilfov region, which on a European scale ranks 14th out of 242 NUTS2 regions, with a GDP per capita level of 164 compared to the EU average of 100. This level is higher than such regions as Stuttgart, Vienna, Bremen, Cologne, that is, we have a very high level of economic development.

On the other hand, we also have the north-eastern region of the country, which is only 46% of the European Union average, at the bottom of the ranking. It ranks 226 out of 242 regions on a European scale, Ionuc Dumitru also said.

In 2021, our country had the tenth place in terms of economic growth, and in 2022 – the twelfth.

GDP growth in the first nine months of 2022 also meant GDP per capita increased by 22%, from €8.8k in the first nine months of 2021 to €10.7k in the first nine months of 2022 – showing the highest growth in the EU analysis submitted by HotNewsChief Economist of Alpha Bank Ella Callai.

From 2011 to 2021, only the Baltic States, Malta and Ireland advanced in the EU ranking for GDP per capita. Over the past ten years, GDP per capita has increased by almost 90% in the Baltic States, by 74% in Malta, and by 2.3 times in Ireland, which meant that GDP per capita in Malta grew by an average of 5.5% annually. , 6.4% in Estonia and Latvia, 6.7% in Lithuania and 8.4% in Ireland.

In Estonia, which had the same GDP per capita in 2011 as Romania in 2021, GDP per capita growth over the past decade has been driven by GDP growth at an average annual rate of 3.3% and GDP price (deflator) growth at an average annual rate of an indicator of 3.1%. In the same period, the rates of Romania were not far from the indicators of Estonia, the GDP per capita grew at an average annual rate of 6.1%, of which 3.1% was the average annual growth rate of GDP volume, 2.4% was the average annual growth rate of GDP volume. the annual rate of GDP price growth and .6% was the average annual rate of population decline.

According to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics, in 2019 the capital “produced” more than a quarter of Romania’s GDP. Banat brings 9.5%, Olteni “brings” 7.7% (the least), Moldova brings 10.3% and the south-eastern region 9.4%. So, the order in which the regions contribute to GDP is: Bucharest, North-West region, Muntenia, Center of the country, Moldova, South-East region, Banat and Oltenia.

The rating has not changed over the past 22 years

In 2000, the order was different: the capital was followed by Muntenia, the Center of the country, Moldova, the South-East region, the North-West region, Banat and Oltenia.

Therefore, North-West Romania lost second place to Muntenia, the Central region dropped to fourth place (from 3rd), and Moldova dropped from 4th to 6th place.