Three regions in Romania had in 2016 a GDP per capita below 50 pc of the EU average

Three regions in Romania, namely North-East, South-West Oltenia and South-Muntenia, had in 2016 a GDP per capita, expressed in terms of purchasing power standards, below 50 percent of the European average, being among the lowest in the EU, according to Eurostat data.

Thus, in 2016, Romania’s North-East region had a GDP per capita of only 36 percent of EU average, the South-West Oltenia region – 42 percent, and the South-Muntenia region – 46 percent, the statistical office of the European Union shows.

The lowest levels of GDP per capita have been recorded in Severozapaden in Bulgaria (29 percent of the average), Mayotte in France (33 percent), Severen tsentralen and Yuzhen tsentralen in Bulgaria (both 34 percent).

Among the 21 regions with GDP per capita below 50 percent of the EU average, five were in Bulgaria and Poland, four in Hungary, three in Romania and Greece and one in France. 

At the opposite, the leading regions in the ranking of regional GDP per capita in 2016, after Inner London – West in the United Kingdom (611 percent of the average), were the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (257 percent), Southern & Eastern in Ireland (217 percent), Brussel in Belgium and Hamburg in Germany (both at 200 percent).

There were 19 regions with GDP per capita 50 percent or more above the EU average in 2016: five were in Germany, three in the United Kingdom, two in Austria, one each in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden, as well as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Eurostat notes, however, that in some regions the GDP per capita figures can be significantly influenced by commuter flows. Net commuter inflows in these regions push up production to a level that could not be achieved by the resident active population on its own. There is a corresponding effect in regions with commuter outflows.