Research and Course Guides: Country Economic Reports: Getting Started

Introduction

This guide will lead you to appropriate resources for the country analysis project.

Reports & Statistical Data Sources

Statista This link opens in a new window
Look specifically in the top menu selections for Country Reports and Country Outlooks for nice statistical summaries.
Data-Planet Statistical Datasets This link opens in a new window
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Data-Planet allows users to retrieve U.S. and international statistics & data, and create tables, charts, & maps from a variety of sources. Data are organized by subject and source; users can browse by folders or keyword search.
Subject categories include: Banking, Finance, and Insurance; Criminal Justice and Law; Education; Energy Resources and Demand; Food and Agriculture; Government and Politics; Health and Vital Statistics; Housing and Construction; Industry and Commerce; International; Labor and Employment; Natural Resources and Environment; Population and Income; Prices and Cost of Living; Stocks and Commodities; Transportation and Travel. Java must be enabled to use this database.

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) Country Data
FRED collects data on many indicators for individual countries; browse here by country or use the search box.

Passport This link opens in a new window
Passport GMID includes research reports and statistics on countries. Use the Search Statistics or Find Analysis functions and search by country.
OECD Economics iLibrary This link opens in a new window
OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Contains analytical reports and statistical data.

Eurostat
Detailed statistics on the European Union and candidate countries.
World Bank Data portal
Downloadable data by country.
International Data Base
(IDB) U.S. Census Bureau.
Statistical tables of demographic and socioeconomic data for 227 countries and areas of the world.
UN Data
The main statistical data search page for the United Nations.

International Financial Statistics Online This link opens in a new window
IFS is a standard source of economic and financial data for most countries of the world. Includes many macroeconomic indicators including prices/inflation, employment, and national income & product accounts (GDP).

Country Overviews & Economic Studies

Each of the sources listed in this box will give you a sizeable overview of a country's economic environment. Start with these to get a general view of the country's situation; additionally, these overviews may help answer many of the assignment's questions directly.

Passport This link opens in a new window
Search for: PEST Analysis Belgium, for example; PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological Analysis. Read or download, then use the "Related" dropdowns at left to find additional reports.

CIA World Factbook
Produced by the CIA, each country's profile includes such information as demographics, political, economic, and geographic data.
OECD Economic Surveys
Comprehensive economic analyses of OECD member and non-member countries

Political Handbook of the World Online Edition This link opens in a new window
Researchers will find this resource useful for comprehensive country profiles, chronicles of national history, government, and political parties, as well as information on intergovernmental organizations.
Political Risk Yearbook This link opens in a new window
Provides 45-65 page overviews of the history, economy, politics, and risk forecasts for 100 countries. It provides 10 years of economic data, with description and analysis of the political players and situation written by experts.

World Bank Countries & Regions
Includes country profiles, statistics, and general reports.
Statesman's Yearbook
An annual look at the politics, culture, and economies of the world. Browse or search within each annual volume.
Library of Congress Country Studies
Each Country Study includes information on the economic, political, and social system of a particular country. Also discussed are the people, their beliefs and values, and their interpersonal relationships. Covers 101 countries and regions.

International News Resources

Access World News This link opens in a new window
This database contains electronic editions of thousands of local, national and international newspapers, along with broadcast transcripts and college and university news. It also includes the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune.
ProQuest US Newsstream, including Star Tribune This link opens in a new window
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US Newsstream enables users to search current U.S. news content, as well as archives that stretch back into the 1980s. It features top newspapers, wires, broadcast transcripts, along with national and regional news sources including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Star Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Chicago Tribune.
Economist This link opens in a new window
The Economist is an important and respected English-language newsweekly magazine. This link gives access to a university-wide website subscription that should give you access to the content without paywalls. Includes current and prior coverage back to 1997; see the separate Economist Historical Archive for coverage back to 1843.
Factiva This link opens in a new window
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Factiva is a great source for finding up-to-the-minute news articles from publications around the world including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Financial Times. It also contains many smaller market news sources, trade magazines, and journals. Use the Companies and Markets option to access company profiles and industry data. Limited to 6 simultaneous users.
If you use Factiva's Share>Within My Account feature to find links for emailing or to use in Canvas, that URL needs to be adjusted with a special code to connect it with our subscription. Copy that URL and paste it into our ProxyMe! widget to create the adjusted URL.

Global Voices Online
Digest of weblogs from around the world.

LibrarySearch

Search Tips:

to focus your search, use the limits on the left side of the result page: select a Resource Type filter, pick a date range, etc. Hit the Newspaper Search button to limit to those.
learn more about LibrarySearch

Your Librarian: John Heintz

John Heintz

Email Me

Contact:

Academic Services Librarian Data Services, Accounting, Analytics, Economics, Engineering, Finance, Operations & Supply Chain Mgmt, StatisticsCharles J. Keffer Library, Skyway level, Opus Hall, Minneapolis Campus
jpheintz@stthomas.edu

651-962-4646

Subjects: Accounting, Business, Business Analytics, Data & Statistics, Economics, Engineering, Finance, General - Interdisciplinary, Operations & Supply Chain Mgmt

Tips

GDP by component
For GDP measures, your best bet is probably Data-Planet Statistical Datasets. Search by keyword, or better yet, go to "Browse by Subject">International; for European countries, then pick A) Eurostat>Economy & Finance>National Accounts> Pick your country from the list. In the Table name box, pick GDP & Main Components (Current Prices).>In the Variable Name box, scroll to Not seasonally adjusted data-Final consumption expenditures of households: Percentage of GDP. Download that file. Then scroll down the list, finding Final consumption expenditures of general government: Percentage of GDP, then Gross fixed capital formation: Percentage of GDP, then Exports: Percentage of GDP and Imports: Percentage of GDP, downloading each file in turn. These are the technical terms for the 3 main components of GDP that you may have learned: Consumption + Investment (gross fixed capital formation) + Government + (Exports-Imports) = GDP.

For Defense, on the main search screen in Data Planet, just search for Defense GDP, and you should find a data series from the World Bank's World Development Indicators database that will let you pick your country and download the data.

Alternate sources of GDP: B) International Monetary Fund>World Economic Outlook>GDP Metrics, or C) Penn World Tables.

More Sources

Country Information
by Marianne Hageman Last Updated Jan 30, 2023 127 views this year