Italy has been one of the pivotal countries of European history, starting from the times of the Roman Empire; as evidence of this, Italy is the state with the greatest number of architectural, cultural and historical wealth. Although the territory is not as vast as other nations, it has different aspects, such as the Alps to the north and the Apennines to the center-south, more or less extensive hilly areas and some plains (the Po Valley the largest); thousands of kilometers of coastline increase the variety of the landscapes of the Peninsula.

 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COUNTRY

Time zone: UTC + 1 hour

Surface area: 301.340 Km²

Population: 59.434.000 ab. (2011 census) 60.666.000 ab. (2016 estimates)

Capital: Rome

Main cities: Rome (2,865,000 inhabitants, 3,930,000 urban centers) is the most populated city, but is surpassed as urban conurbation from Milan (1,345,000 inhabitants, 5.270.000 urban agglomeration), follow Naples (974,000 inhabitants, 3,700,000 urban centers), Turin (891,000 inhabitants, 1,525,000 urban centers), Palermo (674,000 inhabitants) and Genoa (587,000 inhabitants).

Currency: Euro

Official languages: Italian

Business Language: Italian, but English is becoming more and more common as a business language

State order: Parliamentary Republic

Administrative subdivision: Italy is subdivided into 20 regions, of which 5 with special status, with an urbanization rate of 68%

 

Economic framework

Since the end of the Second World War, Italy has experienced profound economic changes, which in the following decades have made it one of the world’s major economic powers, thanks to a continuous process of economic growth that lasted until the end of the nineties of the twentieth century. century.

During this phase, the progressive downsizing of the primary sector (agriculture, livestock and fishing) in favor of the industrial and tertiary sector (in particular, during the economic boom, in the 1950s and 1970s) was accompanied by profound changes in the social fabric. production, following massive migrations from the South to the industrial areas of the Center-North thanks to a new strong push to urbanization, linked to the parallel transformation of the labor market.

The industrialization phase was completed in the eighties and the tertiarization of the Italian economy began, with the development of banking, insurance, commercial, financial and communication services.In the 2000s the Italian economy entered a phase of substantial stagnation, characterized by extremely low growth. Finally, at the end of the decade, as a result of the global economic crisis, the country enters a period of real recession in the years 2012 and 2013.For 2014, growth was 0.1%, for 2015 0.7% against a 0.8% forecast, in 2016 it exceeded 0.9% and in 2017 it reached 1.5% with probable upward forecasts thus confirming the economic recovery. In 2018 GDP is expected to grow at a constant rate of 1.5%.I

n 2017 and 2018 the slow and gradual recovery of the economy (+ 1%) started in 2015, after the years of contraction following the global financial crisis and the debt crisis in Europe, should be confirmed and consolidated. In the same period we expect a Eurozone GDP increase of 1.7% per year.
The growth of the economy, slightly strengthening compared to the value recorded in 2016 (+ 0.9%), was favorably affected by the increase in domestic demand, due to higher consumption induced by signs of recovery in the labor market.
Employment levels should continue to improve in 2017, albeit less intensively than in previous years, with an expected increase of + 0.7% in terms of units of work. Unemployment will continue to decline and should stand at 11.5% in 2017. In addition, productivity should return to growth.
In addition to favoring the containment of interest expenditure on public debt, allowing easier management of public finances, the positive momentum of the credit market and the expansionary policy of the European Central Bank stimulate investment, expected to recover significantly (+ 3%) also in 2017.

Tourism is also an integral part of the economy of the country, in fact,with over 46 million tourists a year Italy is the 5th most visited country in the world, our artistic and cultural heritage is of the highest thickness, we can also count on beautiful mountains, islands and beaches.The reasons that push tourists (foreign and internal) to visit the Belpaese are many as tourists looking for seaside resorts, pilgrims on a religious journey or tourists who want to enjoy the vast artistic-architectural or food and wine heritage that Italy can offer .