Today Italy has a highly developed economy. Italy is an agro-industrial country. The whole country is divided by the economic development into two regions. North Italy is richer in economic sense, and the bulk of income here is gained from the products of industry. Poor South develops agriculture. Italy's GDP is about 2 trillion dollars, GDP per capita is about 30 thousand dollars, inflation stands at 2.5 percent, and unemployment at 10 percent. However, the figures are constantly changing due to the deep impact of the global economic crisis on the economy of Italy.
The country is in the euro-zone and also has the membership in such organizations as the EU, WTO and OECD. The main source of the income in the GDP of Italy gains from the service sector. It gives 69 percent of total income, while creating 63 percent of jobs among the active population, which is amounted at 25 million people.
The share of industry in the Italian economy is 29 percent. The proportion of population employed in the industry is at the level of 32 percent. The leading industries in Italy are mechanical engineering, metallurgy, light industry and food, as well as chemical and petrochemical industries. Italy is one of the world leaders in the supply of cars, bicycles and mopeds, tractors, household appliances, electronics, machine tools, as well as clothing and leather shoes, pasta, cheese, olive oil and wine. Also are produced art glass, pottery and jewelry. In the extractive industry dominates the production of pyrites, mercury, natural gas, potassium salt, dolomite and asbestos.
For Italy the intervention of the state capital in the industry is normal. This is primarily observed in the form of monopolies. The largest of the Italian associations is the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction, which brings together more than 150 enterprises in various industries and has an annual turnover of 50 billion dollars and is among the ten largest industrial groups in the world.
Also state in Italy completely monopolized the energy industry, 50 percent of transport, 45 percent of metallurgy, as well as many banks.
Agriculture in Italy has the lowest share in the economy. The agriculture gives only 2 percent of GDP and 5 percent of the population are involved in it. The main branch of agriculture in Italy is the crop. The most common crops are wheat, corn, rice and sugar beets. Italy is the top producer of rice in Europe. Also, Italy is one of the world's leading and largest European producers of citrus fruits, tomatoes, grapes and olives. Arable land is 30 percent of the total land, land under the permanent crops and pastures have stakes of 10 and 15 percent respectively. About 23 percent of Italy is covered by forests and woodlands.
In the structure of the foreign trade of Italy import and export are roughly at the same level. The deficit in the balance is covered by remittances from abroad and income from tourism. Italy is visited annually by more than 50 million tourists. Main imports are energy, industrial raw materials, machinery and foodstuffs. The major foreign trade partners are Italy, Germany, France, USA, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Italy's foreign debt amounts at about $ 2 trillion.
