Romania's GDP per capita expressed in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) increased to 69% of the EU average and 65% (3pp up from 2018) of the average in the euro area in 2019.

Prime minister Ludovic Orban recently said he envisages a GDP per capita at par with EU's average by 2030.

The average gain posted by Romania over the past decade, in terms of GDP in PPS, was quite impressive: 3pp, according to Andrei Radulescu, chief economist of Banca Transilvania, local Ziarul Financiar reported. Romania thus leads the region, followed by Poland (with a 2.13pp gain) and Bulgaria (with 2.03pp). However, Poland's GDP in PPS is still 4pp higher than Romania's as a share of the euro area average.

Andrei Radulescu pointed out that the gap between Central and Eastern Europe and the euro area is much higher when measured in nominal GDP per capita.

Eurostat also announced that the actual individual consumption (AIC) in Romania last year was 21% below the European Union's average and the highest in the region. AIC is a measure of the material welfare of households.

In the region, Poland has the same AIC as Romania, Greece lags slightly behind (77% of EU average), and all the other countries fare worse (Bulgaria 59%, Hungary 67%, Serbia 49%, Croatia 66%). The highest level of AIC in the EU was recorded in Luxembourg, 35% above the EU average. Germany was 23% above the average, followed by Austria, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and France, all of which recorded levels between 5% and 20% above the EU average.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Nuthawut Somsuk/Dreamstime.com)