After a brief lull, the country in what was becoming a recurring theme more than doubled its economic output in less than a decade, once again becoming one of the fastest growing advanced economies in the world. Entering the Eurozone made it easier to attract foreign investment, foreign workers and foreign buyers of its goods. Its trading partners also didn't have to worry about foreign exchange risk of the notoriously unstable lira. The advantages of the Eurozone also coincided with the further general development of Italian manufacturing and the rise of industries like tourism. Then of course the country was hit by the GFC and the Eurozone crisis and ever since it's fallen into yet another period of stagnation. Only this time, instead of lasting less than a decade, it's gone on for almost 15 years now. The reason that we have spent so long exploring the details of Italy's unique economic histories of booms and plateaus is because it raises an obvious question for the nation. Can it do it again? Obviously, no one can prick the future, at least of all economists, but if history repeats itself, it looks like Italy is overdue to take another step up in this weird staircase of economic output. Unfortunately of course, it's not that simple, and there are a range of new challenges that are combining with some of the old historic challenges that are making a trademark Italian turnaround unlikely. The first is simply an ageing population. Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world, and a lot of its workforce is getting close to retirement. This wouldn't be a problem by itself, except for the fact that it has a low birth rate, so young people are not joining the workforce to make up for the people leaving the workforce, who will ultimately, and unfortunately there's no nice way to put this, become a drain on resources.