Italy

Italy has about 59, 8 million inhabitants and it is located in the south center of Europe.

It is the 4^th economy of the European Union and the 9^th worldwide, according to the 2014 data of the World Bank.

After the world crisis and after the fluctuations in the following years, in 2015 the Italian economy continue to grow (+0, 6%).

Regarding the international commerce, in 2015 Italy occupies the 10^th position as exporter and the 11^th as world importer.

In 2015, about 57% of Italian goods exports went to EU while 43% went to the external UE markets. Concerning the Italian imports from EU, it was registered a growth of 5, 8% in 2015 (in comparison to the previous year), while the ones with origin in external markets stabilized (-0, 1%).

On one hand, we have countries such as Germany, France, England and Spain as five of the main Italian Client markets who concentrated almost 41% of the Italian sells to the exterior in 2015. According to data from the International Trade Center in 2015 Portugal was the 30^th Italian client.

On the other hand we have Germany, France, China, Netherlands and Spain as the five main Italy suppliers who concentrated about 42% of the Italian purchases to the exterior in 2015. Portugal was the 42^nd Italy supplier and kept a share of 0,4% of the total of imports in 2015 (-2% compared to the previous year).

The intermediate goods and equipment are at the top of the Italian exports. The Italian industries which detach the most against the economic crisis of the last years were the, mechanical engeneering, pharmaceutical, chemistry, robotics and the food industry, while some traditional sectors, as the textile, furniture and vehicle, registered important losses during this period.

Regarding the imports, oil is one of the first products of import. Apart from these, also machines and mechanical equipments, mobile vehicles and the pharmaceutical products are amongst the main imported goods.