TriGranit: Romania will leave Hungary behind

Romania will leave Hungary behind by 2010 in terms of the Gross Domestic Product per capita, according to Sandor Demjan, TriGranit's chairman and the richest man in Hungary, who is expecting to conduct investments worth 2-3 billion euros on the Romanian market within the next few years. "Romania will surely surpass Hungary as early as this decade, in terms of the standard of living, the GDP per capita, the rate of economic growth and the capital inflow," Demjan told Hungarian publication Portfolio. 2006 was the first year to see Romania's GDP exceed Hungary's, in absolute value (97 billion euros, compared with 89 billion euros). However, Romania's GDP per capita was half that of Hungary last year (4,482, compared with 8,851 euros). Under the circumstances, in order to leave Hungary behind in this respect (GDP per capita), Romania would have to double its GDP within the next few years, seeing a 19% yearly rise, while Hungary would have to remain at the same level and preserve its number of inhabitants. Tri Granit, held by Hungarian and Canadian businesspeople, as well as by the Austrian-based investment fund, Immoeast (25%), directs only 5% of its investments towards the Hungarian market, with its leading markets being Russia and Poland, followed by Romania. The company opened the Polus Center (shopping mall) last week, which entailed 140m-euro investments, and started a similar project in Constanta. Both projects were sold to Immoeast for almost 400 million euros. TriGranit is also involved in the Esplanada project (photo) in the Capital, put at 800 million euros.