International Business/Italy

Introduction

Italy currently is the fourth biggest economy in the whole European Union and it comes seventh in the whole world . This is a great achievement to the country considering that only 50 years ago , the country had no much political or economical prospective . However , the American Marshal Plan together with a vast number of politicians pulled the country towards Europe , the only foundation of hope . And as the European community grew , so did Italy 's economic strength increased to the present growth it is witnessing . This is going to take a

br critical look at Italy 's economy and examine the European Union , where Italy is a member . The will also analyze the trade relations between Italy and the U .S , and also underscore globalization and its effect on the focus of managers in the EU countries

The economy of Italy

The economy of Italy has undergone tremendous changes ever since the end of the Second World War from an agriculturally based economy , the Italian economy has grown in to industrial based economy , currently ranking as the seventh-biggest economy in the world . Italy is a member of the powerful G-8 (group of eight ) industrialized countries , it is also a member of EU (European Union ) as well as The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs , 2008

Italy has got a small number of natural resources . The country has no significant amounts of coal and iron . However the Italy has natural gas reserve which comprises of Italy 's most significant mineral resources . A lot of raw materials required for the manufacturing and over 80 of Italy 's energy supplies are imported to the country . The strength of Italy 's economy lies in the processing as well as manufacturing of products , mainly by small and medium sized firms owned privately by families . The main industries include precision machinery , vehicles pharmaceuticals chemical , electrical goods , and clothing (Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs , 2008

The country continues to struggle with budget deficits , and it had an increased public debt standing at 2 .0 as at November 2007 . Italy joined the European monetary union in 1998 through the signing of the Stability and Growth agreement , as a stipulation of this membership . Italy is required to maintain its budget deficit under 3 levels . In 2006 June the European Union warned Italy to ensure that it brings down the level of deficit to less than 3 by 2007 . The government of Italy has continued to find it hard to bring down the budget deficit to a point that would permit fast decline of the public debt (Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs , 2008

The economic growth rate of Italy averaged just 0 .66 for a period of 5years starting from 2001 to 2005 . Italy growth rate attained the highest mark of 1 .9 in 2007 basically due to increased exports to the Euro zone market . The economic growth of Italy is expected to grow at a low rate than...