* The Cold War country trends Italy: Ecojomyn(1945-48)








Italian Economy (1945-48)


Figure 1.--Even before the end of the War (May 1945), food was desperately short in Italy. And with the economy destroyed, the shortages persistted after the War. Here Italian mothers are protesting. The press caption read, "Food Demontration in Italy: Poorly dressed Italians carry placards during demonstration January 4 [1944] for food before government buildings. Signs read 'Less sweetsfor the rich' 9center) [reflecting the rampid inflation] and 'Our children are hungary'. There were also food shortages in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Uniin, but the people there did not dare protest.

The economy was colapsing even befoew the Allies landed (September 1943). With the end of World War II, Italy was in ruin. Unlike France, the Germans had not withdrawn and retreated to the Reuch borders. The Allies had to fight a ptotracted campaign al the way north from the toe of the hr Italian boot to the Po Valley. In addition to the battle damage, the Germans destroyed what was left of civilan infrastructure as they retrated. Here the putpose wa sto create problems that the Allies had to deal with,complicating the drive north. There was a vengence factor as the Germans felt betrayed by the Italians switching sides. Italy had not been a prosperous country even before the War, especially the south. And now much of the country was turned into rubbel, both villages and cities. The economynwas essentially destroyed. And with the end of the Mussolini's Fascist regime, the entire Italian Government had to be reconstituted. The new government had very limited resources to deal with the enormous problems. The War and German festruction teams had destroyed Italy's transportation system and infrastructure. A great deal of housing was destroyed. The Banca d'Italia added inflation to the ecomomic problems. A degree of infkation was unavoidable as the wage and price controls of the Fascist regime were ended. The amount of currency in circulation had expanded some 18 fold between 1938 and 1945 but the Fascist price controls had prevented this from affecting prices. It did, however impair prodyction. Data shows that the the GDP fell sharply. [Federico and Malanima] The poertion of agriculture in gross output was still substantial. Many Italians were influenced by Communist oromises. The failure of Eastern European Communist economies was nit yet apparent. This affected the willingness of entrptrneurs to invest. The economy quickly recovered after 1948. The major factors appear to be the American Marshall Plam and the rapid Westernn European recovery led by the German Economic Miracke which offered good payiig factory jobs for Italian workers. The new governments, led by the centre party, the Christian Democrats (CD), proved capable of supporting economic growth.







CIH Cold War






Navigate the CIH Cold War Section:
[Return to Main Cold War Italian page]
[Return to Main Cold War European country page]
[Return to Main Cold War country page]
[Return to Main Communism page]
[About Us]
[Assessment] [Biogrphies] [Countries] [Communism] [Culture] [Decolonization] [Economics] [Famines] [Fashion] [Freedom] [Hot wars] [Human rights] [Inteligence]
[Mass killing] [Military] [Pacifism] [Phases] [Science] [Totalitarianism] [Weaponry]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Return to the Cold war Home page]
[Return to the 20th century wars and crises]
[Return to CIH Home page]






Created: 6:36 PM 2/8/20205
Last updated: 6:36 PM 2/8/2020