You'll never guess which EU country is the most productive!

When it comes to raw labour productivity — the ratio between economic output and hours worked — Romania has posted a spectacular climb in the 20 years since joining the EU: from 43% to 87% of the Union average.

But that indicator matters mostly at the macroeconomic level. When it comes to business and investment decisions, a different number carries more weight; one that, in Romania's case, has always told a far more dramatic story: productivity adjusted for wage costs, or, put plainly, labour yield (or competitiveness).

Here's the twist: the fact that Romanians still earn salaries at half the EU average – up from a quarter at the time of accession – flips the whole equation. In Romania, labour efficiency, meaning the ratio between productivity and wages, sits at 173% of the EU average.

That figure puts Romania at the top of the pack, ahead of Slovakia (159%), Bulgaria and Hungary (152% each), and Poland and Greece (147% each). The data is for 2025, back when Romania had not yet been overtaken by Bulgaria at the bottom of the EU wage league.

At the other end of the table, the most "expensive" countries in productivity terms are Denmark (66% of the EU average), Luxembourg and Germany (76% each). Germany, in particular, is coming off a decade-long slide in labour efficiency, down from 93% in 2017, while France climbed from 89% to 99% and Italy jumped from 107% to 125%.

A methodological note is in order here: the calculations are based on gross figures, because these are the ones relevant to the employer, that is, the one who uses them to decide where to invest. The calculations could also be made on a purchasing power parity basis, which is more relevant for the employee, in which case the hierarchy changes and Romania moves to 9th place, in a ranking led by Ireland, Slovakia and Greece and closed by Austria, Slovenia and – this time managing to grab the very last spot – Germany once again.

Ranking high on this sort of list isn't inherently good or bad; instead, it's the result of two completely opposite forces at play: a top spot can mean employees are highly productive, badly underpaid, or some mix of both. The reverse is also true: Denmark and Luxembourg show how workers who are extremely productive – double the EU average – still manage to be paid exceptionally well for their output.

This calculation was first run by this author a decade ago, for the blog riscograma.ro, in a piece that carried the exact same headline as this one. Back then, it was a fairly niche way of looking at productivity; since then, it has become a standard tool for investment decision-making.

The desk research was later backed up by first-hand observations from head-hunter George Butunoiu, in a 2019 piece for standard.ro: "Let's bring the Germans over to Romania for three months and send the Romanians over there, and see who's actually more productive!"

"The first time I spent an extended stretch at the overseas offices of a big, proud corporation, about 20 years ago, and actually saw what people did there, how they worked and how much, I was floored. They weren't doing anything more, or anything better, than the Bucharest branch. If anything, quite the opposite, as I slowly started to realise. An employee there handled fewer files and projects than their counterpart here, took longer to finish them, and not necessarily to a higher standard. Then I moved on to other offices, and more offices still, and I started getting used to the shocks," Mr Butunoiu explained.

More recently, the question of relative productivity resurfaced courtesy of economist Dan Bucșa, Macro Strategist at Wellington Management in London and former chief economist at UniCredit Romania, speaking at the Concordia conference How Do We Activate Romania's Capital.

"In terms of competitiveness, Romania has slipped back; ten years ago it was in Europe's top five for labour competitiveness, which we measured as productivity relative to wages. And I don't think the answer is to cut private-sector wages; I think the answer is to raise productivity," says Mr Bucșa. His assessment appears to be about purchase-parity adjusted figures and also about the trend rather than the absolute figures. Romania has indeed lost ground compared with 2017, when it stood at 232% of the EU average. But the same is true of Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland; across the whole region, wages have doubled over the past decade.

Also, even in nominal terms, productivity has improved substantially over the past 10 years. In 2016, Romania’s gross labour productivity – measured per employed person and per hour worked – stood at 61.7% of the EU average, making it the second-lowest in the EU, ahead of only Bulgaria. Since then, it has increased to 87%, moving Romania up 10 places in the ranking, ahead of Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Greece and Bulgaria. This ranking is led by Ireland, Luxembourg and Denmark.

How do we activate Romania's capital?

"We need industrial policies to speed up growth," says Dan Bucșa. What kind of policies, exactly, given that industry's share of GDP has shrunk from 21% to 11% over the last decade? "We won't be able to keep producing the same things we were producing 50 years ago," says Iulian Lolea, chief economist at the Concordia Employers' Confederation, speaking at a Curs de Guvernare conference on Romania's reindustrialisation.

"[State] support needs to be balanced between those running a surplus and those running a deficit. Why not help the class valedictorian too? You can also balance the ledger by boosting growth wherever we already have an edge," Mr Lolea explains.

The number one problem, flagged by nearly everyone at the debate, is Romania's punishing energy prices, which would need to drop by several dozen percentage points over the coming years for industry to stand any real chance of a turnaround.

"I believe our absolute priority has to be cheap energy. Honestly, the word 'industry' will become a relic of history if we keep these energy price levels. Our kilowatt costs three times more than in China, two and a half times more than in the United States — it's the most expensive kilowatt in the region," said Mihai Daraban, president of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Energy is the main headache on the cost side of the ledger, but what about the revenue side? If our neighbours are moving in on our turf, the only real answer is to go after theirs.

"Team Romania – let's call it that – is, after all, in competition with the countries around us (...) and we need to do something, we need to figure out how we grow, how we differentiate ourselves. Because it's also a matter of security. How do we get our products and services out there, into their markets? Because — well — they came to us first. We should embrace this kind of economic nationalism, not run away from it; we need to build a plan around it — whether we say it out loud or not", said Iulian Stanciu, former head of eMAG, on a Curs de Guvernare podcast.

Which Romanian brand will be first to crack the global top league

Mr Stanciu sold off his stakes in eMAG and, more recently, in Flanco, to set up a venture capital fund – Inspire Asset Management – aimed at channelling capital into innovative entrepreneurial ventures. In principle, the fund is open to anyone with a good idea; Stanciu even pitched the concept to economics students at Bucharest's ASE university, at the invitation of lecturer Andreea Paul, who, in a recent statement, is raising the bar on Romania's competitiveness ambitions.

"We have the entrepreneurs, the technology and the competitive companies. The next leap is building a Romanian brand big enough, known and respected enough, to crack the global top 100," Ms Paul says.

The 2026 Global RepTrak 100 is led by LEGO, Adidas, Samsung, Rolex and Sony. The list also includes companies from economies smaller than Romania's. Qatar Airways ranks 62nd, even though Qatar's economy is less than half the size of Romania's. Cathay Pacific sits at 52nd, hailing from Hong Kong, an economy that ranks just below Romania on the global GDP table. To even qualify, a company needs global revenues above $2 billion, brand awareness above 20% worldwide, and a meaningful footprint in at least seven of the 14 markets tracked.

"If I had to pick the Romanian company with the biggest shot at global reputational clout, I'd point to Bitdefender. It has its own proprietary technology, its global headquarters in Bucharest, millions of users across more than 170 countries, over 580 patents, and products built into more than 200 tech companies' offerings. It's already a global brand — built out of Romania," says Andreea Paul.

According to INACO, other companies and brands with real potential include: DIGI, which has crossed the major financial threshold with €2.22 billion in revenue in 2025 and is expanding into Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium; UiPath, a company founded in Romania with $1.61 billion in revenue, now incorporated in the United States and headquartered in New York; and Dacia, a brand of Romanian origin now part of the Renault Group, which sold nearly 700,000 cars in 2025 and has passed the ten-million mark in cumulative sales since 2004.

On the same topic, be sure to check out the Standard article The Long March from "Made in Romania" to "Innovated in Romania"