Romania's Economy: Manufacturing, IT, and EU Integration

Romania is the second-largest economy in Central and Eastern Europe after Poland and one of the fastest-growing in the European Union. For American readers, the easiest way to picture it: Romania has about 19 million people — roughly the population of New York State — in a country slightly smaller than Oregon. Romania is best known for a fast-growing IT and software sector, automotive and component manufacturing for European supply chains, agriculture across a large fertile plain, and ongoing convergence toward Western European income levels since joining the EU in 2007.

This is a plain-English tour written for American readers. For the U.S. picture, see The State of the U.S. Economy and the broader Economy hub. For other countries, see the country economies index.

How big is the Romanian economy?

For example, Romania's recent annual GDP has run around RON 1.6 trillion, or roughly $350 billion USD, according to the World Bank and the Romanian statistics office, the National Institute of Statistics (INSSE). That makes Romania about one-seventy-fifth the size of the U.S. economy by output. GDP per person sits around $18,000 USD at official exchange rates — below the U.S. average but rising steadily and converging toward Western European levels.

The official Romanian numbers are published by INSSE, and additional financial statistics come from the central bank, the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

The biggest industries

Romania has a diversified economy with a strong manufacturing core and a fast-growing services sector. The main pillars:

• Automotive manufacturing and components — Dacia (owned by Renault) and Ford operate major assembly plants. A deep network of component suppliers serves the wider European auto industry.
• Information technology and software — Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, and Iași host one of the largest software and outsourcing sectors in Central Europe, with a strong base of engineers and R&D centers for global firms.
• Agriculture — Romania is one of the EU's largest grain producers, with extensive corn, wheat, and sunflower production across the southern and eastern plains.
• Energy — natural gas (including Black Sea offshore), oil, hydropower, nuclear (the Cernavodă plant), and a growing renewables sector.
• Manufacturing — machinery, chemicals, textiles, furniture, and electronics, much of it integrated into German and other EU supply chains.
• Financial services — banks like Banca Transilvania and BCR serve the growing domestic market.

About 40% of Romanian GDP comes from exports, with most flowing to the EU.

Currency and the central bank

Romania uses the Romanian leu (RON). One U.S. dollar typically buys somewhere between RON 4.4 and RON 4.8, depending on the exchange rate. Romania is a member of the European Union but is not in the eurozone — Romania is treaty-bound to eventually adopt the euro but has no fixed timeline.

The National Bank of Romania (BNR) sets monetary policy and the benchmark policy rate. The BNR targets inflation at 2.5% per year (with a ±1 percentage-point band), broadly in line with the U.S. Federal Reserve's 2% target and other Central European central banks.

Trade with the United States

The U.S. is one of Romania's larger non-EU trading partners. Total U.S.-Romania trade runs around $5 billion USD per year combined. Romania sells the U.S. machinery, vehicles and parts, iron and steel, and chemicals. The U.S. sells Romania aircraft, machinery, electronics, and defense equipment. The U.S. side sits at the International Trade Administration.

Germany, Italy, and France are typically Romania's largest trading partners overall. Romania has expanded its purchases of U.S. defense equipment significantly over the past decade as part of broader NATO modernization.

EU funds and the convergence story

Since joining the EU in 2007, Romania has been one of the largest recipients of EU structural and cohesion funds, with billions of euros flowing into highways, rail, water and sewerage, energy, and digital infrastructure. The result has been one of the more sustained convergence stories in the EU: Romanian GDP per person was about a third of the EU average in the early 2000s and has risen to roughly three-quarters of it. Convergence — a poorer economy growing faster than richer peers and gradually closing the income gap — is a central concept in development economics.

Cost of living

Cost of living in Romania is far lower than in the U.S. or Western Europe. Bucharest is the most expensive city, with central districts comparable in price to lower-cost mid-sized U.S. cities; Cluj-Napoca has seen rapidly rising housing costs alongside its IT-sector growth. Smaller cities and rural areas are notably cheaper.

How Romania's economy affects the U.S.

Romanian software engineers and outsourcing centers serve U.S. clients through both directly contracted work and through the global delivery centers of major consulting firms. Dacia and Ford vehicles assembled in Romania feed European supply chains that the U.S. participates in indirectly. Romania is a growing buyer of U.S. defense equipment, including F-16 and (planned) F-35 fighters, Patriot systems, and HIMARS launchers. Romanian agricultural exports compete in global grain markets the U.S. is a major participant in.

Regions and the development pattern

Romania's economy varies significantly across regions. The Bucharest-Ilfov region holds the capital and produces a much larger share of national GDP than its population share, with the financial sector, the largest services concentration, and most of the corporate-headquarters economy. Transylvania in the center and west — anchored by Cluj-Napoca, Brașov, and Timișoara — is the manufacturing and IT heartland, with Dacia, Ford, and major software hubs. Moldavia in the northeast, anchored by Iași, has a growing IT sector but lower average incomes. Wallachia in the south, including the agricultural plain along the Danube, holds much of Romanian agriculture and energy. The Black Sea coast around Constanța hosts Romania's main port and a Black Sea offshore gas project.

A note on the numbers

Numbers in this article change every quarter. Always check the latest from the World Bank Romania profile, the International Monetary Fund, the National Bank of Romania, and the National Institute of Statistics for the most current data.