The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) recently celebrated the strong performance of the market in the first four months of this year, with the exchanges’ main index, BET, closing at nearly 8,300 points in April.

“Romanian companies earned over RON 10 billion, (over $2.6 billion), in the first four months of 2017,” BVB Board of Governors President Lucian Anghel said in an announcement. “In addition, we are talking about some of the highest values in the last 20 months as far as their capitalization is concerned.”

Poland experienced a growth of 22.02 percent over the first third of the year, making it the European leader, but Romania’s 16.11 percent growth gives the country the second fastest growth rate in Europe, far outstripping Germany, which was in the third position with 8.34 percent growth.

The BET index’s daily trading value grew 17 percent when compared to the same period last year, and capitalization of the companies listed grew to $21.2 billion in April, a 20-month high for the exchange.

“Romania keeps posting top growth rates among European stock exchanges after the first four months,” said BVB CEO Ludwik Sobolewski. “The growth rate of 16 percent of the Romanian market is double compared to Germany, France or to the average of the Emerging Markets included in the MSCI index.”