Romania is catching up faster than average than Hungary
In Hungary, the average GDP growth in the last ten years has been only 2.3 percent, which avoids the average average.
Hungary’s GDP per capita was 39 percent of the average in 2010, and by 2021 it had risen to 50 percent (64 percent and 76 percent at purchasing power parity, respectively).
Our eastern neighbor, Romania’s per capita GDP, was 62 percent of ours in 2010, up from 69 percent in 2021 (78 percent and 96 percent in purchasing power parity, respectively), meaning that Romania has essentially caught up with Hungary, indicating that Romania caught up faster with the EU average than Hungary – read the GKI research.
More important than economic growth is what citizens feel about it. This was examined for two-earner households with two children (earning 100 percent of the national average) and one-person retired households.
While the net annual income of two-earner households with two children in Romania was 59 percent in 2010, this ratio became 81 percent in 2021 (68 percent and 94 percent, respectively, in purchasing power parity), due to the fact that the income of Romanian families is 136 percent. , only 72 of the Hungarians (the increase of the Hungarian tax relief during the period has increased).
In other words, the combined effect of the outstanding increase in earnings in Hungary and the child support system also outpaced the increase in earnings in Romania, and if the pace difference persists, they will catch up with the Hungarian level in 1-2 years.
Meanwhile, the average annual income of Romanian retirees in Hungary was 46 percent in 2010, and by 2021 it had already reached 63 percent (in terms of purchasing power parity, the proportions were 50 and 76 percent, respectively). If the current trends continue, it is expected that Romania’s per capita purchasing power parity GDP and earnings in Romania will surpass the Hungarian level within 1-2 years.