RSS
Romania’s GDP would have been over 200 billion euros in case half of emigrants had stayed in Romania
Romania would have had GDP of at least 200 billion euros (not 160 billion euros as in 2015) if at least one of the three millions of Romanian emigrants had remained in the country and 500,000 had become entrepreneurs, the Financial Newspaper (ZF) writes.
In case one million employees paid with an average gross salary of 500 euros/month and 500,000 entrepreneurs had made profit of 50,000 - 70,000 euros/year had stayed in the country instead of emigrating, Romania’s GDP would have grown between 25 and 35 million euros every year, according to a simulation made by ZF. In the scenario imagined by SF, VAT brought to economy by the 1,5 million Romanians who would have stayed in the country is higher than the money sent by Romanians from abroad (3-4 billion euros/year). On the other hand, the risk of remaining in the country of those persons would have been the lack of jobs and their joining social assistance, thus burdening expenses made by the state and increasing the people’s poverty level.
In 2014 alone (the latest data), 185,000 Romanians left the country, but the question of migration gets new dimensions, considering that most of people who leave have high school and higher education and most probably gave up the jobs they had in Romania.
In the first waves of migration the people who emigrated were mostly unemployed or jobless because of dis-industrialization, who were not highly skilled and who had lost their jobs when factories closed down in Moldova area.
The situation changed and of late there have been many emigrants with higher training and studies who choose Northern countries or destinations like Germany, Great Britain and even Switzerland, while the impact on Romania’s economy is significant.