u/ouch_oof - originally from r/GenZhou
NOTE: This is not an endorsement of Ceausescu or his policies. He made many mistakes and was not a good leader. However, this rather brief post discusses Romania's economic growth and why it constitutes a post-war miracle economy.
In Comparison with the Asian Tigers and Other Economic "Miracles"
Romania after WW2 was a mostly backwards, third-world country. Even with extremely fast growth, it was still a middle-income country. Plus, a country like Romania was a mostly agrarian one and did not have much industry. The GDP per capita for Romania was slightly below that of India in 1950. However, by around 1984, Romania had a GDP per capita that was 3.7 times higher than that of India and 7.6 times higher than it's original GDP per capita. For comparison, South Korea, who had a widely touted economic "miracle" had a GDP per capita 4.9 times larger than India, and 8.3 times higher than it's original GDP per capita by 1984. Not to mention, the South Korean "miracle" was one that was heavily subsidized by the United States. While Romania did receive foreign credit and loans, it became became indebted and would run into numerous issues in the 1980s. For a full comparison with some other Asian Tigers and post-WW2 "miracle" economies, here is the graph from 1950 (few years after WW2) to 1984 (around the time when the East Bloc countries underwent major liberal reforms). Romania's growth aligns more with the East Asian miracle economies, only marginally behind South Korea and Japan.