International Trade and Business Resource Guide: Country Analysis

The IMF publishes a range of time series data on IMF lending, exchange rates, and other economic and financial indicators. It includes the series:

International Financial Statistics (IFS)
Balance of Payments Statistics (BOP)
Direction of Trade Statistics (DOT)
Government Finance Statistics (GFS)

The database contains some time series data as far back as 1948.

The statistics section of the OECD iLibrary allows users to search within various data sets, such as the OECD Statistics on International Trade in Service, or to choose amongst pre-selected Key Tables (i.e. Trade: Key Tables from OECD.) Note: The IEA datasets are not available.

Offers tips on navigating OECD iLibrary, and provides several videos presenting facts taken from the content of the iLibrary.

This yearbook from the Institute for Management Development delivers competitiveness profiles of countries, and comparative rankings based on economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure. The accompanying website (see the Reference Desk for access) allows the user to generate up to date performance rankings.

The 'Economics' tab leads to several categories of economic data, which include indicators for Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, and the UK.

Passport, produced by Euromonitor, is a database aiming to provide international consumer and market research. To that end, there are multiple types of country reports. See the guide "Country Information in Euromonitor's Passport."

Reports on the operating environment, commericial indicators, and foreign trade of nearly 60 countries. Includes investing, taxation, licensing, human resources, and trade statistics.

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is a database for theory and research in international affairs. It contains a wide range of scholarship, dating from 1991 onward, that includes working papers, occasional papers, policy briefs, conferences proceedings, case studies, e-books, and journals. In addition, the "atlas" section contains politcal and economic reports from the Economist Intelligence Unit for most of the world's countries.

The CQ Press Political Handbook (contained in the CQ Press Political Reference Suite) provides government and political information on countries around the world. Coverage includes: historical trends, regime changes, constitutional history; regional policy issues; political parties; election results; and the circulation & political affiliation of major national media. The Handbook also describes 120 intergovernmental organizations, such as OPEC, NATO, and the agencies of the United Nations.

The Trade Compliance Center (TCC), part of the International Trade Administration, "provides access to commercial and economic information to help U.S. exporters understand and evaluate opportunities created by trade agreements the United States has negotiated." Note the three following access points to the various reports, or choose List All Reports to browse a list of country reports.

An annual series that surveys significant foreign barriers to U.S. exports.

Provide information on the foreign trade policies and regulations of specific countries.

Country Specific IMF reports on the economic conditions of individual countries. These lengthy reports are organized by date, 1997-2009, (they may also be sorted by title), and are available as full-text PDF files. A wider range of IMF Country information, is available at http://www.imf.org/external/country/index.htm.

Select a country/territory for information on data, trade contacts, and other information sources.

"The Doing Business database provides indicators of the cost of doing business by identifying specific regulations that enhance or constrain business investment, productivity, and growth. The indicators are developed by the Finance and Private Sector Vice Presidency of the World Bank Group." The database includes 178 countries, and covers the topics of licenses, employing workers, registering property, protecting investors, and taxes.

A copublication of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, held in Sawyer Reference HD3611 .D651 2011.

A list of links to the statistical agencies of 139 foreign countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.

"This 'full' version of the Universal Currency Converter contains every known world currency: over 180 currencies in over 250 geographical locations."

This site, produced by KPMG International, "represents KPMG's guide to comparing business costs in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. This report measures the combined impact of 27 cost components that are most likely to vary by location, as applied to specific industries and business operations. The eight-month research program covered 128 cities in nine industrialized countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States."

The Canadian Government's Citizenship and Immigration agency (in association with the AMNI Centre of Social Work, at the University of Toronto) has created this large collection of reports on the people and culture of many lands. Each cultural profile provides an overview of life and customs in the profiled country. This is the kind of information not readily available elsewhere.

The Country Reports make up a section of the accompanying website for WGBH's Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy television series. The Country Reports "summarize the economic development of each nation from 1910 to the present and can be explored by category and by year." 41 Countries are included.

This section of the Development Gateway website provides information on "business opportunities, information on development projects, publications, and statistics -- organized by country." The Development Gateway Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, with the mission to "reduce poverty and support sustainable development through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT)."