World Bank points out to major gap between urban and rural Romania

Romania’s transformation and development process in recent years has brought to light the major differences within the country. There are currently two countries: one that it dynamic, urban and integrated into the European Union and one that is rural, poor and isolated, World Bank representatives said in a press conference on Wednesday, June 6. More than a quarter of Romania’s population lives on less than USD 5.5 per day and corruption is still a major problem in the country. World Bank senior economist Donato da Rosa pointed out that while Romania’s economy has grown in recent years and the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita reached 59% of the EU average in 2017, up from 30% in 1995, with the help of EU cohesion funds, Romania is still the country with the highest share of people living below poverty line. He also warned that corruption remains an important issue in Romania, one that makes the state less credible and contributes to a wrong distribution of public funds. “The public sector has problems in implementing long-term policies. Fiscal policy measures are very pro-cyclical and the Fiscal Code changes very often,” Rosa added. World Bank slightly improves Romania economic growth estimation editor@romania-insider.com