Romania’s 🇷🇴 economic statistics are, in general, incredibly weird. I have repeatedly taken Romania out of charts I was making because it just seemed so far out there. 1.) The Bucharest metro area comes out as one of the richest in Europe, richer per capita than Geneva or Copenhagen (in PPS). Its GDP grew by 33% in five years, roughly Shenzhen-level growth, while the regions surrounding Bucharest shrank by more than 5%. 2.) Labour productivity per employed person in ICT and in professional, scientific and technical services is, in nominal terms (!!!), on par with or even higher than in Germany, and it swings wildly from year to year. 3.) Romania has higher actual individual consumption per capita than Czechia or Slovenia, which are well ahead of it in GDP per capita. This is fuelled by a near-zero or even negative household saving rate, the largest budget deficit in the EU and a current account deficit of around 8% of GDP. Depending on which statistic you pick, Romania looks either like an absolute rocket or like an economy on the verge of collapse. My guess is that a lot of this is measurement rather than reality: a huge shadow economy that has to be estimated, millions of emigrants making “per capita” figures shaky, tax regimes that reshuffle how work and income get reported, companies booking their output at Bucharest headquarters, and national PPPs flattering an expensive capital. I should visit Bucharest.