An autarky is an economy that does no trade with the outside world and relies entirely on its own resources. It is also referred to as a "closed economy".

Today autarky is found very rarely. An example of a currently run autarky is North Korea, but even it has a small amount of trade between China and Japan.

In the past, fascism imposed autarky in Italy after an embargo sanctioned by the League of Nations. Autarky was a primary goal for Adolf Hitler in his aggression in Europe, capturing arable land in Poland to provide for Germany's prinicipal foreign dependency, food. The first heading of the Hitler's infamous Hossbach Memorandum was "Autarky." Spain after the Spanish Civil War was embargoed by the Allies. This and the nationalism of the Franco regime led to autarky. But the consequences of war made it a very miserable time for Spaniards. Imports of Argentinian food conceded by Juan Domingo Perón eased the famines. A symbol of the Spanish autarky was the Biscúter car.

Where autarky does not exist, a hypothetical assumption of autarky is used to calculate something known as autarkic relative price s.

The word is from the Greek αὐτάρκεια, which means self-sufficiency (from αὐτο- "self" and ἀρκέω "to suffice"). It is sometimes confused with autarchy (Greek αὐταρχία), which generally means self-government, or government by absolute rule (although autarchy is sometimes also used as a variant spelling of autarky).

See also: Juche ideology of self-reliance