Global BusinessItaly
Italy
- The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade From Hell
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- Obama's 'Mistakes': Way Too Early to Judge
- The Gospel of Glee: Is It Anti-Christian?
- In His Cave, a Palestinian Farmer Makes a Stand
- When Thanksgiving Comes to Afghanistan
- Couple Crashes Obama's State Dinner
- One Year After the Mumbai Massacre, a Trial Plods On
- Ahmadinejad in Brazil: Why Lula Defies the U.S.
- California Judge Challenging Obama on Gay Rights
MULTIMEDIA
GLOBAL BUSINESS
Cultivating South America's Favorite Drink
An American company finds success cultivating South America's popular caffeinated drink
Home Instead: The Business of Granny Care
As the population around the world ages, Home Instead finds that non-medical companionship and care giving can make good business
Belu: Environment-Friendly Bottled Water
A British company focuses on helping the environment and maintaining profits
COUNTRY NAVIGATOR
- Italy
- Capital: Rome
- GCI Rank: 49 What's This?
Developed for the World Economic Forum by Professor Xavier Sala-i-Martin, the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) measures the competitiveness of nations using economic statistics and extensive polling of international business leaders.
FEATURED STORIES
Italy
Flirting with Disaster
Naples is chaotic, beautiful, ungovernable--and plans carefully for the worst
Smarter Clothes
Europe wants to own the market for fabrics that can monitor you and your environment
The Man Who Brought Back the Golden Fleece
After close to 200 years in business, all-American retailer Brooks Brothers had gone off course. Now an Italian businessman is helping steer the brand back to its former self
DOING BUSINESS IN ITALY
Problematic Factors
- Access to financing
- Restrictive labor regulations
- Foreign currency regulations
- Inadequate supply of infrastructure
- Inefficient government bureaucracy
- Inadequately educated workforce
- Poor work ethic in national labor force
- Policy instability
- Government instability/coups
- Crime and theft
- Corruption
- Tax regulations
- Tax rates
- Inflation
- 0 10 20 30
- Percent of responses
Note: From a list of 14 factors, respondents were asked to select the five most problematic factors for doing business in their country/economy and to rank them between 1(most problematic) and 5. The bars in the figure show the responses weighted according to their ranking.