EWOLUCJA GOSPODARKI WŁOCH PO II WOJNIE ŚWIATOWEJ- OD „CUDU” DO KRYZYSU GOSPODARCZEGO

Abstrakt

Summary
At the time of unification, in 1861, Italy was a relatively backward country compared to the
more advanced western European nations. Agriculture was the main productive sector and
60 per cent of the labour force was still toiling on the land. From then on the Italian economy
underwent deep changes, both in its productive capacity and structure. Italy caught up with
the level of output per head of the most advanced economies and today shares a similar
economic structure and a low rate of growth. Italy is the fourth-largest national economy in
Europe, the eight-largest by nominal GDP in the world. Despite these important achievements,
the country’s economy today suffers from many and relevant problems. After a strong GDP
growth in 1945–1990, the last two decades’s average annual growth rates lagged below the EU
average; moreover, Italy was hit particularly hard by the late-2000s recession. The stagnation
in economic growth, and the political efforts to revive it with massive government spending
from the 1980s onwards, eventually produced a severe rise in public debt.
Key words: Italy, South Italy, economic miracle, economic development, financial crisis,
budget and payment deficit, debts.