Nowadays, the service sector accounts for two thirds (roughly 69 percent) of gross domestic product (GDP) and trade and tourism are its points of strength. Another 29 percent or so of the national income comes from industry (including building) and the remaining 2 percent from farming. The strongest industries are mechanical engineering and clothing and textiles.A feature typical of the Italian system is the industrial district model, with roots inside a precisely-defined geographical area and made up of a close-knit fabric of small and medium-sized businesses, each specializing in a specific stage in the production chain.This model has turned Italy into one of the countries where entrepreneurial enterprise is furthest ahead, and entrepreneurial independence has made for a growth in creativity and a quest for good looks and good taste in the finished product that have brought world fame to Italian-made articles.However, there is more to the Italian economy than small business. There are many major groups that have made the country’s industrial history and contributed to its growth.The agribusiness, metalworking, textiles and clothing, industrial design and furniture and furnishing accessory manufacturing are the industries that not only carry greatest weight in terms of turnover, employment and number of businesses, but bear Italian exports aloft worldwide, making a significant contribution to the country’s trade balance.Italy ranks eighth in the world league table of manufactured goods exporting countries and seventh in terms of imports.The tourist industry is another major pillar of the Italian economy, thanks to the country’s inestimable archaeological and artistic heritage. Over half the world’s historical and artistic heritage is to be found in Italy, which features hundreds of archaeological sites and over 3,000 museums nationwide. The tourist industry accounts for roughly a third of the country’s overall GDP, providing over a million jobs.The global recession is slowing but the timing and strength of the recovery remain uncertain. The need to rebuild stocks is providing an initial spur to production. Opinion surveys have shown signs of diminished pessimism. The decline in GDP and in world trade had deepened in the first quarter of 2009, but industrial output and other coincident indicators point to abatement in the pace of the fall in the second quarter. Signs of an easing of the recession are also seen in the euro area and in Italy (business and consumer confidence have improved further in June 2009).In Italy, the decline in industrial production came to a halt in the spring: an uptick in April was followed by a basically flat result for May and for June. Business and household opinion surveys also trace a picture of less pessimism in June. The Italian central bank estimates that GDP diminished by 0.6 percent on a quarterly basis in the second quarter after a decline of 2.6 percent in the first. Even assuming no more than that output stays at its first-quarter level for the rest of the year, the average annual decline would approach 5 percent. Taking all the currently available information into account, we estimate the fall in Italy’s GDP in 2009 at 5.2 percent.