With a 15 times lower economic performance than UK's, Romania publishes a similar number of books titles per every billion euros of GDP. This indicator points to the fact that in Romania the same number of new book titles are published as in western Europe, considering the size of the economy.
Amid a gross domestic product of 133 billion euros last year, Romania saw almost 15,000 book titles published, while the UK, which had a 1,949 billion-euro GDP last year, saw 200,000 titles published.
If one considers the number of new book titles published last year against the GDP, it results that in Romania, 113 new book titles are published per each billion euros of GDP, which is similar to the situation on the market of the UK, the second-largest country in the EU in terms of GDP size. In Germany, Europe's richest country, only 38 new book titles are published per billion of euros of GDP.
However, the difference resides in the number of copies published, with the value of the book market in Romania amounting to over 100 million euros, i.e. tens of times lower than the value of Western European markets.
"The number of copies per book title published in Romania is extremely small compared with other countries, even impossible to keep track of. Although we bring many new titles onto the market, the inefficient book distribution system prevents the books on offer from reaching its public," said Iren Arsene, owner of the Curtea Veche publishing house, with 2 million euros in turnover last year.
Market data reveal that Romania saw 209,000 book titles published between 1990 and 2009, whilst a similar number of titles were published in the UK in 2005 alone.
In terms of average spending on books on the Romanian market, Romanians spend less than 3-4 euros per capita, which would place Romania at the bottom of the ranking of EU countries in terms of
