Romania has a developing, upper-middle income market economy, the 11th largest in the European Union by total nominal GDP and the 8th largest based on purchasing power parity. Romania entered the 1990s a relatively poor country by European standards, largely a result of the failed economic policies of Nicolae Ceauşescu in the 1970s and of the failures of privatization in Romania during the 1990s, which decreased the GDP by almost 50% and ruined the industry because of corruption. However the collapse of the Communist regime in 1989, reforms in the 2000s (decade) and its recent entry to the European Union have led to an improved economic outlook. Romania has experienced growth in foreign investment with a cumulative FDI totaling more than $100 billion since 1989, and has been referred to as a "Tiger" due to its high growth rates and rapid development. Until 2009, Romanian economic growth was among the fastest in Europe (officially 8.4% in 2008 and more than three times the EU average). The country is a regional leader in multiple fields, such as IT and motor vehicle production, and is expected to join the Eurozone by 2014.Bucharest, the capital city, is one of the largest financial and industrial centres in Eastern Europe.

Romania (ⁱ/roʊˈmeɪniə/ roh-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Roumania; or Rumania;Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgaria to the south.

At 238,400 square kilometers (92,000 sq mi), Romania is the ninth largest country of the European Union by area, and has the seventh largest population of the European Union with over 19 million people. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, the tenth largest city in the EU with about two million people.

The Kingdom of Romania emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza in 1859. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared on 9 May 1877, and was internationally recognized the following year. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Greater Romania emerged into an era of progression and prosperity that would continue until World War II. By the end of the War, many north-eastern areas of Romania's territories were occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania forcibly became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact.