AN ANALYSIS OF THE NON-FINANCIAL COMPANIES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

This paper aims to analyse the non-financial companies in the European Union (EU) member countries, using a set of relevant indicators (debt to equity ratio, net return on equity, gross profit share, debt to GDP ratio, gross investment rate) in order to establish the deviation from the EU and the Eurozone average. The analysis in our paper is based on both insights from the current literature and statistical data and information provided by the European Central Bank, the National Bank of Romania, and the European Commission. According to the findings of our research, between 2007 and 2016 Romanian non-financial companies underperformed most noticeably in terms of debt to equity ratio and only temporarily in respect of debt to GDP ratio as compared to the Eurozone. From the perspective of gross investment rate and gross profit share, Romanian companies outperformed the Eurozone as a whole