Romanians' financial assets increased by more than 21 per cent in the last year, and thus it is no longer the poorest country in the Eastern Europe, according to the Allianz, Global Wealth Report 2011.

In Romania, the most populous country in the region after Poland, average per capita financial assets total 5,270 Euros, meaning that Romanians have precisely one third less than the average citizen in the region, according to the report. Romanians have 0.12 per cent of the financial assets of the world, a total of 112 billion Euros.

In comparison, Bulgaria, which also joined the European Union in 2007, has 0.04 per cent of the world's wealth, meaning 38 billion Euros, and an average per capita financial assets of 5,011 Euros.

Whereas Eastern European households account for 2.1 per cent of the population of the 50 countries covered by our analysis but only 0.8 per cent of global financial assets, western Europeans, who account for 8.6 per cent of the population, hold more than 28 per cent of global wealth.

Romanians' asset structure is: 26 per cent in bank deposits, 63 per cent - securities, 3 per cent - insurance and others, 8 per cent.

The global wealth report is topped by Switzerland, as financial assets per capita were of 207,400 Euros. The Swiss are the wealthiest nation on Earth, holding 1.65 per cent of the financial assets of the world.

Romanian Times