Only 2.3% of the Romanian companies had a fast growth pace in 2015, ranking second to last in the EU, according to data EU’s statistical office Eurostat published yesterday. Only Cyprus ranked lower, with a 2.2% share.

A company is considered to be fast-growing if the average growth pace of the number of employees exceeds 10% over a three-year period. This applies to companies with at least ten employees at the beginning of this period.

About 158,000 companies in the EU entered this category in 2015, namely almost 10% of the active firms with at least ten employees. In total, these companies had 13.5 million employees. The countries with most fast-growing companies are Ireland, Malta and Hungary, with percentages of 12%-15%.

Romania also ranks last based on the share of employees working in fast-growing companies. Around 1 in 5 employees worked in such a company in Ireland or Hungary in 2015, while the share reached 6% in Romania.

editor@romania-insider.com