GDP-real growth rate: 1.5% (1997 est.)

GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$21,500 (1997 est.)

GDP-composition by sector:
agriculture: 3.3%
industry: 33%
services: 63.7% (1994)

Inflation rate-consumer price index: 1.9% (1997 est.)

Labor force:
total: 22.851 million
by occupation: services 61%, industry 32%, agriculture 7% (1996)

Unemployment rate: 12.2% (December 1997 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $416 billion
expenditures: $506 billion, including capital expenditures of $47
billion (1996 est.)

Industries: tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food
processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics

Industrial production growth rate: 0.5% (1996 est.)

Electricity-capacity: 57.186 million kW (1995)

Electricity-production: 225.179 billion kWh (1995)

Electricity-consumption per capita: 4,509 kWh (1995)

Agriculture-products: fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar
beets, soybeans, grain, olives; meat and dairy products; fish catch of
525,000 metric tons in 1990

Exports:
total value: $250.8 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: metals, textiles and clothing, production machinery,
motor vehicles, transportation equipment, chemicals
partners: EU 53.4%, US 7.8%, OPEC 3.8%

Imports:
total value: $190 billion (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities: industrial machinery, chemicals, transport equipment,
petroleum, metals, food, agricultural products
partners: EU 45.5%, OPEC 4.8%, US 4.3%

Debt-external: $45 billion (1996 est.)

Economic aid:
donor: ODA, $3.043 billion (1993)

Currency: 1 Italian lira (Lit) = 100 centesimi

Exchange rates: Italian lire (Lit) per US$1-1,787.7 (January 1998),
1,703.1 (1997), 1,542.9 (1996), 1,628.9 (1995), 1,612.4 (1994),
1,573.7 (1993)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 25.6 million (1996 est.)

Telephone system: modern, well-developed, fast; fully automated
telephone, telex, and data services
domestic: high-capacity cable and microwave radio relay trunks
international: satellite earth stations-3 Intelsat (with a total of 5
antennas - 3 for Atlantic Ocean and 2 for Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat
(Atlantic Ocean region), and NA Eutelsat; 21 submarine cables

Radio broadcast stations: AM 135, FM 28 (repeaters 1,840), shortwave 0

Radios: 45.7 million (1996 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 83 (repeaters 1,000)

Televisions: 17 million (1996 est.)

@Italy:Transportation

Railways:
total: 19,437 km
standard gauge