Romania reached 56% of the EU’s average energy productivity in 2016, compared to only 43% in the year of the accession, according to data released by Eurostat.
From 3.1 euro/kg oil equivalent in 2007, we reached 4.7 euro/kg oil equivalent, level that places us in the group of former socialist countries from Central Europe.
Moreover, over the ten years analyzed in the Eurostat report, in terms of efficiency in using the energy, we have exceeded Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic (countries with a slightly higher GDP/capita but a similar currency regime) and we have come close, at a very small distance, to Slovakia (the only country in the region that has adopted the single European currency).
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- Evolution of national energy productivity in some EU countries
- (2016, euro/kg oil equivalent)
- Year
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Data clearly show that, in terms of energy consumption results, our colleague of accession round Bulgaria has left long behind us, which explains to a large extent the increasing gap between us and them in terms of GDP per capita related to the EU average.
For reference, we also presented the evolution of energy productivity in the three major European economies which are also Romania’s main foreign trade partner countries, Germany, Italy and France. Not surprisingly, they are all above the European average, but we should remember that surprisingly, Italy is the only one that exceeded the threshold of 10 euro/kg oil equivalent (kgoe abbreviated in English).
Best performances of this indicator were registered at the European level by three countries that do not have important energy resources such as Ireland (16.9 euro/kgoe), Denmark (15.1 euro/kgoe), Malta (12.4 euro/kgoe). To be noted, though, they are followed closely by the UK (11.0 euro/kgoe), which holds significant energy reserves.
Energy productivity
Energy productivity in a country is measured by dividing the total value of goods and services produced (national GDP) by the amount of energy needed to produce them and is expressed at the EU level in euro/kg oil equivalent (energy in various forms is converted in the equivalent expressed in oil to be added).
It is worth noting that there is also the option to calculate the energy productivity if you consider the parity of the standard purchasing power (euro PPS/kgoe), which makes the adjustments with the level of prices in each country.
In this calculation system, Romania goes up to 10.3 euro/kgoe and surpasses not only Poland (7.7 euro/kgoe), Hungary (7.5 euro/kgoe), Slovakia (7.4 euro/kgoe), the Czech Republic (6.5 euro/kgoe) or Bulgaria (5.6 euro/kgoe) but also Germany (9.3 euro/kgoe) and France (8.2 euro/kg). Italy is a little better, with 11.1 euro/kgoe.
The sharp decline of production capacities in petrochemical and metallurgy fields since 1989 generated deficits in the foreign trade, but also increased the efficiency of energy resource use, with a convergence towards the Western European model.
In our case, one can notice the correlation between the energy productivity and GDP per capita related to the EU average. A correlation that requires the maintenance of the current trend and even a faster convergence with the values registered by Western economies.
