Forecasting Sustainable Development Indicators in Romania: A Study in the European Context

Abstract

Sustainable development is a very important and highly debated concept worldwide, with almost all states around the globe recognizing the importance of supporting a balancing of economic, social and ecological plans to create a more prosperous and equitable world. The purpose of the current study is to identify the current context of the progress achieved by the EU member states regarding the 17 sustainable development objectives. Following the implemented research, it was found that Romania is one of the countries with the lowest performance, so an attempt was made to make a short-term forecast in the case of this country in order to determine its future course. In this sense, the Holt–Winters trend methods were used, which are based on historical data to predict future values. According to the analysis carried out, the predicted values are mainly encouraging, but it is necessary for the competent authorities to become more involved because, in many aspects, Romania is at the bottom of the European Union (EU) ranking regarding the analyzed indicators.