Analyze how the international context affected Italian economy during Fascist rule?

Fascists ruled Italy form 1922 till 1943; it was lead by Benito Mussolini. Some sources, as the modern world history book, written by Norman Lowe, say that Mussolini new few about economics. Maybe that can explain some of his policies, but he also ruled in a period where economies where not so strong globally, and where Italy suffered several conflicts that affected those policies, and the economy.

To begin with, Italy was one of the few powers that did not have colonies; this made the aim of self sufficiency (autarky) even more difficult. Fascists arise on 1922, just after WW1 which devastated Europe and their economies, also a factor that affected negatively on Italy's economy, because it made countries to follow a policy of protectionism, where imports have to be lower than exports.

Mussolini promised a strong economy, he wanted Italy to be a great power again. On 1926, Mussolini reevaluated the lira, which was Italy’s currency, and raises it to 90 to the pound sterling instead of 150; this was to demonstrate to the World that Italy had a strong currency. This made Italy’s situation worsened, because with your currency too high exports will be more expensive so countries will by less. This decision, also affected negatively on workers, who’s salaries were reduce by 10-20%, all of this just before the world economic crisis on 1929.

The Great Depression, which began on 1929 with the Wall Street crash in the USA intensify Italy’s economic problems. Exportations were already in decay because of the raise of the lira, now, with the economic crisis they fell further. Unemployment, which was one of the problems Mussolini, promised to solve, increase up to 1.1 million. Salaries were cut, and although the cost of living was falling because of the depression, wages fell even more than prices. And after seeing all of these problems in Italy’s economy, Mussolini refused to devalue the lira, until 1936.

In spite of  the great economic problems Italy had, cause by the context and several bad decisions of it ruler, Mussolini kept on giving the impression that Italy was a powerful country, making his foreign policy very aggressive, this and the need for colonies made Mussolini invade Abyssinia, one of the few countries in Africa that were not colonies. This invasion also cost a high price to Italy, not only because it required money for the actual fighting, but also because the League of Nations impose economic sanctions to Italy. The League ordered it members to impose these economic sanctions, and this restrict economic advance in Italy.

I will end my answer saying that although Italy had a bad leader, in terms of economy, the international contexts deepen its economic situation. This is clearly shown in the example of the great depression of 1929, where is demonstrated that Italy had already economic problems, provoked by bad decisions of Mussolini; but the international context remarked this issues.