Romania to overtake Portugal in GDP per capita

[Lplius]

Romania is still poor, the good numbers for growth come from it coming from 3rd world level poor around year 2000.

I grew up in a village that was basically Middle Ages with electricity, in summer we were using the corn field as toilet.

the new generation in the big cities however live no worse than people in cities in Portugal, Greece, parts of Italy, for sure. but the rural side is still very non-European, a random Romanian village looks like a random Kazakh village with the same mix of old and modern, same clothing type etc.

I do love that type of village and I am pro-Oriental, so my comments over the poverty and backwardness of Romania are only observations. I am more bothered by the religiousness and xenophobia of Romanians

A random village in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece is like that too. Half in ruins due to depopulation via mass emigration, and the few residents left are old farts who grew up in poverty and conservative households.

[ecptr]

[Nurzat]

A random village in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece is like that too. Half in ruins due to depopulation via mass emigration, and the few residents left are old farts who grew up in poverty and conservative households.

I meant also landscape, weather, house architecture, this is why Kazakhstan villages are 100% similar to Romania's, while in the Mediterranean even without money houses look good, there's another style, different weather, different cuisine etc. Romania is Eurasian, not Mediterranean, all things considered

[Jana]

Their economy was very similar to that of Portugal.

And? Portugal was agrarian country without industry.

As for quality of life, despite the infamous Romanian migrant exodus, Portugal has an even higher emigration rate. And this is now. Give it 10 or 20 years.

Emigration rate has nothing to do with quality of life. Portugal is incomparably better than Romania in that aspect which includes how cities and villages look, how infrastructure is, and how people live. Climate helps too even if it is not decisive factor.
Romania has lowest household income in EU (maybe only BG has lower), poor infrastructure (it's improving but whatever, it is still bad) and many of people there don't have a modern toilet (check the stats)

I'm not from a rich country and Romania seemed crappy to me, and I visited richer region of Romania, Transylvania.

[Jana]

GDP per capita means nothing if the romanian government does not spend money for living conditions and to eradicating poverty. Romania has one of the highest poverty rate in EU, highest migration rate to West etc. It seems romanians dont see much of this plus GDP money, im sure the reason is the high corruption. I have been to Transylvania what is pretty advanced region in general, and it was like the poor east Hungary. I did not see much difference.
Romania is still far away from Portugal.

Never been to northeastern Hungary which is poor, but Hungary that borders Romania (Alfold) looked notably nicer, more orderly and clean than Transylvania. I noticed difference immediately after crossing the border.

[Jana]

GDP per capita means nothing most times, i doubt thats better to live in USA (70k GDP) than Austria (53k GDP)...

Indeed. USA is overall third world compared too Austria.

[Blondie]

Never been to northeastern Hungary which is poor, but Hungary that borders Romania (Alfold) looked notably nicer, more orderly and clean than Transylvania. I noticed difference immediately after crossing the border.

North Hungary has beautiful landscape, its the last remnant of historical Felvidék (Highland) in hungarian hand. There are old medieval castles everywhere, old medieval villages, old ruins, big forests, hillls, mountains, the area has developed tourism sector too. I was shooting this photo 1 months ago (Bárna village):





but at same time the locals are very poor there with tons of gypsies. The most famous ghettos located in North Hungary. This area is same as Transylvania (according to my experience), just like such eastern areas like Szabolcs or Békés, that bordered with Romania, but Bihar is more developed i think, than romanian Bihor. There are some nice parts in Alföld, but its still not so developed for hungarian standards. For example Transdanubia is much better and similar to Austria. 65% of hungarians live in Transdanubia, Budapest and Pest country in much better conditions, so from here Romania's poverty is more obvious.
I have talked with some romanian guestworker in Budapest, they were from Wallachia, and they said its a real paradise compared to Romania, i think that is a bit of an exaggeration, but they said it.

[Incal]

Let's hope Romania keeps improving and reducing corruption.

[dviz]

GDP per capita means nothing most times, i doubt thats better to live in USA (70k GDP) than Austria (53k GDP)...

It does mean little for countries with oversized financial sector, but for countries like Romania is a decent indicator or development relative to countries with similar economies.

[Lplius]

I meant also landscape, weather, house architecture, this is why Kazakhstan villages are 100% similar to Romania's, while in the Mediterranean even without money houses look good, there's another style, different weather, different cuisine etc. Romania is Eurasian, not Mediterranean, all things considered

Romania's landscape, weather, architecture, etc. is very different from that of Kazakhstan.
Also Southern European villages outside of tourist spots look thirdworldish: unkept and partly in ruins because only old people live there. The cities are not much better either: smelly, dirty and full of graphitti.