Italy has a diversified industrial economy, which is divided into a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies, and a less-developed, highly subsidized, agricultural south, where unemployment is higher. The Italian economy is driven in large part by the manufacture of high-quality consumer goods produced by small and medium-sized enterprises, many of them family-owned. Italy also has a sizable underground economy, which by some estimates accounts for as much as 17% of GDP. These activities are most common within the agriculture, construction, and service sectors. Italy is the third-largest economy in the euro-zone, but its exceptionally high public debt and structural impediments to growth have rendered it vulnerable to scrutiny by financial markets. Public debt has increased steadily since 2007, topping 133% of GDP in 2013, but investor concerns about Italy and the broader euro-zone crisis eased in 2013, bringing down Italy's borrowing costs on sovereign government debt from euro-era records. The government still faces pressure from investors and European partners to sustain its efforts to address Italy's long-standing structural impediments to growth, such as labor market inefficiencies and widespread tax evasion. In 2013 economic growth and labor market conditions deteriorated, with growth at -1.8% and unemployment rising to 12.4%, with youth unemployment around 40%. Italy's GDP is now 8% below its 2007 pre-crisis level.
$1.805 trillion (2013 est.)
country comparison to the world: 12
$1.838 trillion (2012 est.)
$1.883 trillion (2011 est.)
-1.8% (2013 est.)
country comparison to the world: 211
-2.4% (2012 est.)
0.4% (2011 est.)
$29,600 (2013 est.)
country comparison to the world: 51
$29,800 (2012 est.)
$30,100 (2011 est.)
agriculture: 2%
industry: 24.4%
services: 73.5% (2013 est.)
29.9% (2012)
1.2% (2013 est.)
country comparison to the world: 31
3% (2012 est.)
25.74 million (2013 est.)
country comparison to the world: 26
agriculture: 3.9%
industry: 28.3%
services: 67.8% (2011)
12.4% (2013 est.)
country comparison to the world: 125 10.7% (2012 est.)
tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics
-2.7% (2013 est.)
country comparison to the world: 183
