section_path: Economy
section_name: Economy
paragraph_text: Economy
  
  Italy has an advanced mixed economy that is the third-largest in the eurozone and 13th-largest in the world by purchasing power parity -adjusted GDP. It has the ninth-largest national wealth and the third-largest central bank gold reserve. As a founding member of the G7, the eurozone, and the OECD, it is one of the most industrialised nations and a leading country in international trade. It is a developed country ranked 30th on the Human Development Index. It performs well in life expectancy, healthcare and education. The country is well known for its creative and innovative businesses, a competitive agricultural sector (with the world's largest wine production), and for its influential and high-quality automobile, machinery, food, design, and fashion industries.
  
  Italy is the sixth-largest manufacturing country, characterised by fewer multinational corporations than other economies of comparable size and many dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises, clustered in industrial districts, which are the backbone of Italian industry. This has produced a niche-markets manufacturing sector often focused on the export of luxury products. While less capable of competing on quantity, it can compete with Asian economies that have lower labor costs, through higher-quality products. Italy was the world's 10th-largest exporter in 2019. Its closest trade ties are with other EU countries and largest export partners in 2019 were Germany (12%), France (11%), and the US (10%).
  
  Its automotive industry is a significant part of the manufacturing sector with over 144,000 firms, and almost 485,000 employees in 2015, contributing 9% to GDP. The country boasts a wide range of products, from city cars to luxury supercars such as Maserati, Pagani, Lamborghini, and Ferrari.
  
  The Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is the world's oldest or second oldest bank in continuous operation, depending on the definition, and the fourth-largest Italian commercial and retail bank. Italy has a strong cooperative sector with the largest share in the EU of the population (4.5%) employed by a cooperative. The Val d'Agri area, Basilicata, hosts the largest onshore hydrocarbon field in Europe. Moderate natural gas reserves, mainly in the Po Valley and offshore under the Adriatic, have been discovered and constitute the country's most important mineral resource. Italy is one of the world's leading producers of pumice, pozzolana, and feldspar. Another notable resource is marble, especially the famous white Carrara marble from Tuscany.
  
  Italy is part of a monetary union, the eurozone, which represents around 330 million citizens, and of the European single market, which represents more than 500 million consumers. Several domestic commercial policies are determined by agreements among EU members and EU legislation. Italy joined the common European currency, the euro, in 2002. Its monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank.
  
  Italy was hit hard by the 2007–2008 financial crisis, which exacerbated structural problems. After strong GDP growth of 5–6% per year from the 1950s to the early 1970s, and a progressive slowdown in the 1980–90s, the country stagnated in the 2000s. Political efforts to revive growth with massive government spending produced a severe rise in public debt, that stood at over 132% of GDP in 2017, the second highest in the EU, after Greece. The largest portion of Italian public debt is owned by national subjects, a major difference between Italy and Greece, and the level of household debt is much lower than the OECD average.
  
  A gaping north–south divide is a major factor of socio-economic weakness, there is a huge difference in official income between northern and southern regions and municipalities. The richest province, Alto Adige-South Tyrol, earns 152% of the national GDP per capita, while the poorest region, Calabria earns 61%. The unemployment rate (11%) is above the eurozone average, but the disaggregated figure is 7% in the north and 19% in the south. The youth unemployment rate (32% in 2018) is extremely high.