Summary and Conclusions: Italy as an International Investor

The beginning of the 1980s marked a turning point in the post-Second World War history of the Italian economy, almost as crucial as the first oil shock of 1973–4. In fact, while the recessionary impact of the second oil shock of 1979–80 percolated through the world economy, in Italy the dilemma or tradeoff between internal and external equilibrium severely worsened and the government seemed stuck with record-high inflation and unemployment.