culture - products: fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar
beets, soybeans, grain, olives; meat and dairy products; fish catch of
525,000 metric tons in 1990

Exports:
total value: $250 billion (f.o.b., 1996 est.)
commodities: metals, textiles and clothing, production machinery,
motor vehicles, transportation equipment, chemicals
partners : EU 53.4%, US 7.8%, OPEC 3.8%

Imports:
total value: $205 billion (c.i.f., 1996 est.)
commodities : industrial machinery, chemicals, transport equipment,
petroleum, metals, food, agricultural products
partners: EU 56.3%, OPEC 5.3%, US 4.6%

Debt - external: $45 billion (1996 est.)

Economic aid:
donor: ODA, $3.043 billion (1993)

Currency: 1 Italian lira (Lit) = 100 centesimi

Exchange rates: Italian lire (Lit) per US$1 - 1,568.1 (January 1997),
1,542.9 (1996), 1,628.9 (1995), 1,612.4 (1994), 1,573.7 (1993),
1,232.4 (1992)

Fiscal year: calendar year

@Italy:Communications

Telephones: 25.6 million (1996 est.)

Telephone system: modern, well-developed, fast; fully automated
telephone, telex, and data services
domestic: high-capacity cable and microwave radio relay trunks
international: satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (with a total of
5 antennas - 3 for Atlantic Ocean and 2 for Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat
(Atlantic Ocean Region), and NA Eutelsat; 21 submarine cables

Radio broadcast stations: AM 135, FM 28 (repeaters 1,840), shortwave 0

Radios: 45.7 million (1996 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 83 (repeaters 1,000)

Televisions: 17 million (1996 est.)

@Italy:Transportation

Railways:
total : 18,961 km
standard gauge: 17,981 km 1.435-m gauge; Italian Railways (FS)
operates 16,118 km of the total standard gauge routes (10,560 km
electrified)
narrow gauge: 113 km 1.000-m gauge (113 km electrified); 867 km
0.950-m gauge (144 km electrified)

Highways:
total: 305,388 km
paved: 305,388 km (including 6,301 km of expressways)
unpaved: 0 km (1991 est.)

Waterways: 2,400 km for various types of commercial traffic, although
of limited overall value

Pipelines: crude oil 1,703 km; petroleum products 2,148 km; natural
gas 19,400 km

Ports and harbors: Ancona, Augusta (Sicily), Bari, Cagliari
(Sardinia), Catania (Sicily), Gaeta, Genoa, La Spezia, Livorno,
Naples, Oristano (Sardinia), Palermo (Sicily), Piombino, Porto Torres
(Sardinia), Ravenna, Savona, Trieste, Venice

Merchant marine:
total : 396 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 5,503,637 GRT