the regime of benito mussolini extended nationalisation, creating the istituto per la ricostruzione industriale (iri) as a state holding company for struggling firms, including the car maker alfa romeo. a parallel body, ente nazionale idrocarburi (eni) was set up to manage state oil and gas interests. fascist italy had nationalized over three-fourths of its economy by 1939, more so than any nation other than the soviet union. mussolini had earlier boasted in 1934 that “three-fourths of italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state." by 1939 the italian state had taken over four-fifths of italy's shipping and shipbuilding, three-fourths of pig iron production, and nearly half of the steel industry.