s account for 48% of GDP, industry 35%,
agriculture 4%, and public administration 13%. Most raw materials
needed by industry and over 75% of energy requirements must be
imported. After growing at an annual average rate of 3% in 1983-90,
growth slowed to about 1% in 1991 and 1992 and fell by 0.7% in 1993.
In the second half of 1992, Rome became unsettled by the prospect of
not qualifying to participate in EC plans for economic and monetary
union later in the decade; thus it finally began to address its huge
fiscal imbalances. Thanks to the determination of Prime Ministers
AMATO and CIAMPI, the government adopted a fairly stringent budget for
1993 and 1994, abandoned its highly inflationary wage indexation
system, and started to scale back its extremely generous social
welfare programs, including pension and health care benefits. Monetary
officials were forced to withdraw the lira from the European monetary
system in September 1992 when it came under extreme pressure in
currency markets. For the 1990s, Italy faces the problems of
refurbishing a tottering communications system, curbing pollution in
major industrial centers, and adjusting to the new competitive forces
accompanying the ongoing economic integration of the European Union.
National product:
GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $967.6 billion (1993)
National product real growth rate:
-0.7% (1993)
National product per capita:
$16,700 (1993)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
4.2% (1993)
Unemployment rate:
11.3% (January 1994)
Budget:
revenues:
$302 billion
expenditures:
$391 billion, including capital expenditures of $48 billion (1993
est.)
Exports:
$178.2 billion (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities:
metals, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles,
transportation equipment, chemicals, other
partners:
EC 58.3%, US 6.8%, OPEC 5.1% (1992)
Imports:
$188.5 billion (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities:
industrial machinery, chemicals, transport equipment, petroleum,
metals, food, agricultural products
partners:
EC 58.8%, OPEC 6.1%, US 5.5% (1992)
External debt:
$67 billion (1993 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate -2.8% (1993 est.); accounts for almost 35% of GDP
Electricity:
capacity:
58,000,000 kW
production:
235 billion kWh
consumption per capita:
4,060 kWh (1992)
Industries:
machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor
vehicles, c