Finding Country Economic & Financial Information

This is a selective guide to electronic resources for finding country economic and financial information. Sources for international news and statistics are included.

Economic & Financial Information

Country Analysis Briefs (U.S. Department of Energy)
Analysis briefs cover each country's energy sector, including production and consumption, energy use patterns, energy industries, carbon emissions, and other energy-related environmental issues. Includes links to energy-related sites.

Country Commercial Guides (U.S. Commercial Service)
"Prepared annually by U.S. embassies, these reports present a comprehensive look at countries' commercial environments, using economic, political and market analysis." Includes sections on economic trends and outlook, political environment, marketing of U.S. products & services, leading sectors for U.S. exports and investments, trade regulations, investment climate, statistics, and contacts. Free registration required. Choose Country Commercial Guide under Report Type.

Country Profiles (ELDIS)
"ELDIS is a gateway to information on development issues, providing free and easy access to wide range of high quality online resources." Includes links to news, statistics, organizations, and reports on sectoral information such as agriculture, environment, education, gender, health, trade, and governance. Covers developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

EIU Country Commerce (Economist Intelligence Unit)
"Country Commerce is an essential guide to investing, licensing, and trading in over 50 countries worldwide. It provides details on operating conditions, commercial laws, and the regulatory framework in these countries. Each report offers key economic indicators, such as level of foreign direct investment, exports as a percentage of GDP and chief trading partners. The reports also contain current lists of key contacts at banks, ministries, chambers of commerce, and other key institutions."

EIU Country Finance (Economist Intelligence Unit)
"Country Finance is an important tool to understanding a country's financial operating conditions, tax laws, investment opportunities, banking, and other financial services. Each report details cash management and short-term investment options, credit, equity and debt financing, and markets for instruments such as stocks, bonds, currencies, and derivatives. Key variables covered are financial institutions, financial policy, financial regulations, financial markets, and financial techniques." Covers 45 countries.

EIU Country Reports (Economist Intelligence Unit)
"The Economist intelligence Unit provides comprehensive reports on the latest economic, political, and market conditions in 180 countries worldwide."

Global-production.com
"Global-production.com provides comparative information on the potential and performance of emerging economies as locations for global production and sourcing." Indicators include labor cost, skill base, R & D capacity, infrastructure, government, growth in exports and high-tech.

Market Research Library (U.S. Commercial Service)
Includes texts of Country Commercial Guides, Industry Sector Analysis, International Market Insight, Multilateral Development Bank Report, Market Research International, and Market Research Global. Free registration required.

MarketLine Business Information Centre - Country Profiles
"Includes a description of the country's economic performance and GDP, An assessment of the potential for development, and a market and industry analysis of the country's business environment."

Worldwide Governments on the WWW
Collection of links to world government Web sites. Includes national and regional institutions, representatives in foreign countries, political parties, and tourism information.

International Statistics

Datastream International
"Provides international economic and financial data in time series format. Series are acquired from national governments and banks, the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, OECD, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and other international agencies. Additional features include commodity prices, debt and equity information, exchange rates, interest rates, stock market indices, futures, options, and much more. Time coverage varies, but many series are available in daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual intervals for up to 10 years or longer."

GMID (Global Market Information Database)
"GMID delivers volume and value market size forecasts for over 350 consumer products to 2006. Also included are forecasts for key socio-economic parameters to 2014 and population forecasts to 2015. All the data is fully comparable across 52 countries."

International Minerals Statistics and Information (U.S. Geological Survey)
Links to chapters of the Minerals Yearbook, "an annual review of mineral production and trade and of mineral-related government and industry developments in more than 175 foreign countries. Each report includes sections on government policies and programs, environmental issues, trade and production data, industry structure and ownership, commodity sector developments, infrastructure, and a summary outlook."

International Statistical Yearbook
"Economic data from various national and international sources, includes over 1.8 million time series covering a wide range of economic and socio-economic themes: short term economic indicators, general economic statistics, industry, national accounts, financial, social, communications, transport, demographics, etc."

LexisNexis Statistical
"Provides indexing and abstracts from three databases: American Statistics Index (ASI), Statistical Reference Index (SRI), and Index to International Statistics (IIS). The Index to International Statistics (1983-present) covers English language statistical publications of 100 major international intergovernmental organizations." Full-text of most items indexed in these databases are available in print or microfiche in the Davis Library Reference Department.

Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (United Nations Statistics Division)
Provides "economic and social statistics from more than 200 countries and territories, as well as quarterly statistics on industrial production. Over 70 subjects such as population, food, trade, production, labor, prices, energy, mining, transport, finance and national income." Davis Library only. Ask staff at Davis Reference Desk to enter the username and password for you.

OECD Statistics Portal
Economic and social statistics. Categories include agriculture, demography, development, education, energy, environment, finance, health, industry, information technology, leading indicators, national accounts, prices, trade, and transport.

Penn World Tables
"The Penn World Table provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 179 countries for some or all of the years 1950-2000"

STAT-USA/Internet
Select Globus and NTDB for "current and historical trade-related releases, international market research, trade opportunities, country analysis, and the National Trade Data Bank (NTDB)."

UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics on CD-ROM.
"Provides a comprehensive collection of statistical data relevant to the analysis of world trade, investment, and development." From the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Available at Davis Library Reference Department.

WDI Online (World Bank Group)
"WDI Online is a major source for data on the global economy, offering statistics on over 550 development indicators from over 200 countries and 18 country groups, from 1960 to date. The data cover national economies, population, natural resources, financial matters, environmental variables, and much more."

World News Sources

BBC World News
Global news from the British Broadcasting Corporation. Keywords: international news.

Bloomberg.com
Worldwide financial news.

Factiva
"Nearly 8,000 sources from 118 countries in 22 languages, including more than 120 continuously updated newswires." Factiva provides tools for searching and monitoring general news and company, industry, and other business information. It combines the former Dow Jones Interactive and Reuters Business Briefing.

Global Newsbank
"Translated broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals and government statements from nations around the world." Over 1500 sources. Coverage from 1996 forward.

LexisNexis Academic
Select the World News category for global news in English translation, or the Non-English Language News category for sources in foreign languages.

onlinenewspapers.com
Links to thousands of online newspapers worldwide.

World News Connection
Published by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), World News Connection offers translated and English-language news compiled from thousands of non-U.S. media sources. Coverage includes "significant socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events." Davis Library only. Ask staff at Davis Reference Desk to enter the username and password for you.

Related Research Guides

International Business Resources -- Davis Library Ref. Dept. -- UNC-Chapel Hill
The International Business Resources Pages provide a listing of selected print and Web resources on the topic of international business. The printed sources listed on these pages reflect holdings in Davis Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Major Databases of Government Information -- Davis Library Ref. Dept. -- UNC-Chapel Hill
This is a selection of major internet databases from commercial vendors, the federal government and the United Nations.

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