ENERGY INTENSITY - A KEY INDICATOR FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Energy intensity represents one of the main indicators for economic development and is expressed as the ratio between the gross inland consumption of energy and gross domestic product (GDP). The least energy-intensive economies in the EU are Denmark, Ireland and the UK. Among the most energy-intensive economies are Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In socialist times, eastern European Member States had economies with high shares of energy-intensive industries as well as an energy-inefficient infrastructure serving these industries. In this paper we will perform an analyze at Romanian level by comparing the obtained results with the one’s at Europe 27 level and we will determine the decouple degree between energy consumption and economic growth