Romania has managed to rise above Namibia and Columbia in the top of the world’s richest countries, but has not made it into the Top 100, though, according to the World Bank’s World Economic Indicators report.
The Gross National Product per capita went up to 1,870 US dollars in 2002, the last year when comparative statistics were released, thus pushing Romania up to the 108th place among the world’s most prosperous countries.
Despite the sustained economic growth, Romania’s National Product does not even account for half of the world average of 5,120 US dollars, whereas the gap between Romania and the world leaders (Luxembourg and the Bermuda Islands) is huge. Still, if the purchasing power parity is used to draw comparisons, Romania ranks 93rd in Top 100, ahead of Tunisia and Macedonia.
The data calculated by the World Bank apply to the year 2002, so that the report does not provide a very accurate image on Romania’s economy. According to official statistics, Gross Domestic Product per capita went up to 2,622 US dollars in 2003, whereas forecasts for this year put GDP per capita at 2,691 USD.
The Gross National Product gauges the value of all goods and services produced by the residents of a country and includes the net transfers from abroad.
Among the EU candidate countries (Malta and Cyprus not included), the Central European countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) have the best positions, ranking 68th, 69th and 70th respectively.
gabriel.taranu@zf.ro