International Security Bulletin

Italy

Italian Republic

Capital: Rome

The Italy Bulletin

Weekly Brief: April 27, 2015

Top Story American President Barack Obama acknowledged on Wednesday that an American drone strike on an al Qaeda compound along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in January killed two hostages, an American and an Italian. Mr. Obama claimed that the mistake was due to faulty intelligence, and that American officials had no reason to believe the hostages […]

History

Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the regional states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy is a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999. Persistent problems include sluggish economic growth, high youth and female unemployment, organized crime, corruption, and economic disparities between southern Italy and the more prosperous north.

Geography

Metric Units

Total Area 301,340 sq km
Land Boundaries 1,899.2 km
Border Countries Austria 430 km, France 488 km, Holy See (Vatican City) 3.2 km, San Marino 39 km, Slovenia 199 km, Switzerland 740 km
Coastline 7,600 km
Terrain mostly rugged and mountainous; some plains, coastal lowlands
Minimum Elevation 0 m
Maximum Elevation 4,748 m
Climate predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in far north; hot, dry in south
Natural Resources coal, mercury, zinc, potash, marble, barite, asbestos, pumice, fluorspar, feldspar, pyrite (sulfur), natural gas and crude oil reserves, fish, arable land
Arable Land 22.57%
Permanent Crops 8.37%

Economy

Gross Domestic Product $1.83 trillion
GDP (per capita) $30,100
GDP Growth -2.3%
Unemployment Rate 10.9%
Population in Poverty 19.6%
GINI Index 31.9

Budget & Debt

Expenditures $1.01 trillion
Revenue $956.6 billion
Current Account Balance $-30.3 billion
External Debt $2.46 trillion

Trade

Exports $483.3 billion
Export Items engineering products, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals
Export Partners Germany 13.3%, France 11.8%, US 5.9%, Spain 5.4%, Switzerland 5.4%, UK 4.7% (2011)
Imports $469.7 billion
Import Items engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and clothing
Import Partners Germany 16.5%, France 8.8%, China 7.7%, Netherlands 5.5%, Spain 4.7% (2011)

People

Population 61,482,297
Population Growth 0.34%
Ethnic Groups Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south)
Religion Christian 80% (overwhelming Roman Catholic with very small groups of Jehova Witnesses and Protestants), Muslims NEGL (about 700,000 but growing), Atheists and Agnostics 20%
Life Expectancy 81.95 years
Infant Mortality 0.93 deaths/1,000 live births
Maternal Mortality 0.5 deaths/100,000 live births

Energy

Electricity Production 302.6 billion kWh
Electricity Consumption 313.8 billion kWh
From Fossil Fuels 65%
From Nuclear 0%
From Hydroelectric 18%
From Renewable Sources 15.8%