External shocks have hit the Italian economy hard

Looking back, what is remarkable is how robust the Italian economy was from the 1950s to the 1990s. A large part of the story was simple catch-up. When six countries met in Rome in 1957 to sign the treaty establishing the European Economic Community, Italy was by far the poorest member, so it became a net recipient of money from Brussels. Yet it had a long tradition of high-quality (if usually small-scale) manufacturing, especially in the north. It soon turned into the bloc’s lowest-cost maker of a host of goods, ranging from cars and machine tools to refrigerators and washing machines. Migration of low-productivity farm employees (still 30% of the workforce in 1957) to higher-productivity manufacturing and services did much to pep up growth. By 1987 Italy was able, more or less convincingly, to crow about il sorpasso, the moment when it celebrated overtaking Britain in real GDP per head.