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Italian Business- Post-War Boom to the Present Day in New Zealand

From an economic point of view, since the end of the Second World War Italy has been one of the most dynamic countries on the European Continent, having completed a transformation process that has taken it from an essentially agricultural-based economy to a large-scale industrial one.
Such economic progress appears even more important in light of the fact that the country does not have a great abundance of raw materials and needs to import a good deal of its energy.

This transformation process was partially due to the liberalisation of international economic trade, while maintaining and developing the public enterprise system created in the '30s.

At the beginning industrial expansion mainly affected the northern regions, but the South followed with infrastructure upgrade and industrial development projects funded by the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (development fund for the South of Italy), which was set up during the '50s.
At the same time, a declining agriculture was aggravated by emigration both within Italy and abroad. The government responded to the situation with policies for the industrialisation of the sector and large land reclamation projects.

After the "economic boom" of the 1960s, the worldwide energy crisis of the 1970s had a serious impact also on the Italian industrial system. In this period, growth was mainly ensured by the development of the services sector, which since then has played an important role in the further development of the national economy.

The end of the 1980s saw the emergence of an attitude favouring a reduction of the State's role in the economy and the foundations were laid for the large-scale privatisation and liberalisation processes of the '90s.
The main public companies (IRI, ENEL, ENI) were transformed into corporations, making their capital available to private investors thanks to massive public sales.

A similar process took place in the public banking sector (Banca Commerciale Italiana, IMI, Credito Italiano, Banca di Roma, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro), with related market endorsement.

This dramatic change brought many Italian savers into contact with the Stock Exchange and, as a result, stock market capitalisation increased substantially, going from EUR 171.6 billion in 1995 to almost EUR 448 billion in 2002, equal to 36.6% of the GDP (18.6% in '95).

Along with the other Stock Exchanges, the golden year was without doubt 2002, when the total value of the Italian exchange lists grew to over EUR 818 billion (70.3% of the GDP).
In Europe,the Milan Stock Exchange Piazza Affari is the fifth largest financial market preceeded by London, Frankfurt, Euronext - combining the Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels exchanges - and Zurich.

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