Economy — Italy
GDP, employment, industries, public finance, and currency.
Profile updated 2026-06-02
⚡ Economy at a glance
GDP, employment, industries, public finance, and currency. Key figure for Italy: Italy’s economy comprises a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies, and a less-developed, highly subsidized, agricultural south, with a legacy of unemployment and underdevelopment. The Italian economy is driven in large part by the manufacture of high-quality consumer goods produced by small and m…
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Economic overview
- Economic Overview
Italy’s economy comprises a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies, and a less-developed, highly subsidized, agricultural south, with a legacy of unemployment and underdevelopment.
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 eurozone, 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, reaching 131% of GDP in 2017.
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 longstanding structural economic problems, including labor market inefficiencies, a sluggish judicial system, and a weak banking sector.
Italy’s economy returned to modest growth in late 2014 for the first time since 2011.
In 2015-16, Italy’s economy grew at about 1% each year, and in 2017 growth accelerated to 1.5% of GDP.
In 2017, overall unemployment was 11.4%, but youth unemployment remained high at 37.1%.
GDP growth is projected to slow slightly in 2018.
- Industries
Tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics
- GDP - per capita (PPP)
$35,800.00 (USD)
- GDP - real growth rate
0.8%
GDP & growth
- GDP - Gross Domestic Product (PPP)
$2,322,140,000,000 (USD)
- GDP Per Capita
$35,800.00 (USD)
- GDP - real growth rate
0.8%
- GDP - official exchange rate
$1,819,000,000,000 (USD)
- GDP - composition, by end use
- Household consumption: 60.7%
- Government consumption: 19.4%
- Investment in fixed capital: 16.7%
- Investment in inventories: -0.2%
- Exports of goods and services: 30.1%
- Imports of goods and services: -26.7%
- GDP by Sector- agriculture
2.2%
- GDP by Sector- Industry
23.6%
- GDP by Sector- services
74.2%
- Industrial Growth Rate
0.2%
Prices & money
- Inflation Rate
3%
- Exchange Rate per US Dollar
1.07
- Currency Name and Code
Euros (EUR)
- Fiscal Year
Calendar Year
- Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate
5.2%
Employment & labor
- Labor Force
25,280,000
- Unemployment Rate
10.9%
- Major Industries
Tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics
- Agriculture Products
- Fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans, grain, olives
- beef, dairy products
- fish
- Population Below Poverty Line
19.6%
Public finance
- Annual Budget
$956,600,000,000 (USD)
- Public Debt (% of GDP)
126.1%
- Budget Surplus or Deficit - percent of GDP
-3.3%
- Taxes and other revenues - percent of GDP
47.6%
