World Bank keeps high income label for Romania in 2022

Romania remained among the countries with high incomes in 2022, according to a ranking conducted by the World Bank. All EU countries except Bulgaria are in the same group.

Romania entered the high-income group in 2019, but the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy pushed it back into the upper-middle-income group the following year. A strong recovery in 2021 saw Romania return to the high-income group, where it managed to remain in 2022, according to the latest data from the World Bank consulted by economedia.

Romania is currently classified as a country with high income, with a per capita gross national income (GNI) of USD 15,660 at the end of 2022, an increase from USD 14,200 in 2021.

To be part of the group with high income, a country needed to have a minimum per capita gross national income of USD 13,845 last year. 2019 was the first year Romania entered the group of countries with high incomes, reporting a gross national income per capita of USD 12,610. That year, the minimum threshold was USD 12,535.

In 2020, Romania was downgraded from the group of countries with high incomes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when the country's economy decreased by 4%. Romania's situation over the pandemic was not exceptional. The gross national income per capita decreased in all EU countries for which data was available in 2020. The World Bank also slightly increased the minimum threshold of gross national income per capita for this category, from USD 12,535 to USD 12,696.

The World Bank classifies countries for 2022 based on per capita GNI as follows

• USD 1,135 or less – low-income economies;
• USD 1,136 – USD 4,465 – lower-middle-income economies;
• USD 4,466 – USD 13,845 – upper-middle-income;
• USD 13,485 or more – high-income economies

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