Abstract:

Romania has the second largest population in Central and Eastern Europe and is the seventh largest country within the EU. Its geographical location, along with poor quality of the transport infrastructure has led to difficulties in accessing EU markets. However, in the last 10 years, Romania's economic evolution has been strongly influenced by external transformations and the EU accession process. In Romania, regional development differences have historical, cultural and economic explanations. The process of industrialization, from the communist period and the structural changes that have occurred during the transition to a market economy have had an impact on long-term regional development disparities. Statistics show that Romania has entered the transition process with relatively low regional disparities compared to the new member states, but these disparities have increased rapidly, first among the Bucharest area and the rest of the country. The main objective of this research is to identify and analyze the factors that contributed to increased disparities between regions in Romania and their impact on macroeconomic indicators. The main research methods used are comparative and correlative analysis. The results reveal the fact that the same factors have had a different impact from one region to another, mainly because the administration did not pay sufficient attention to the particularities of different regions. Research has shown that a flexible and differentiated approach is necessary for reducing the disparities between regions of Romania.