Country Information

Electronic Sources |  Print Sources

NOTE: The letter U next to the name of a resource indicates that it is a licensed electronic service that UTEP subscribes to. Off-campus access (unless otherwise specified) to that resource is available and is restricted to current UTEP students, staff, and faculty. 

Electronic Sources

General Information 

• STAT-USA Internet ^U  -  NTDB provides access to a "Country Commercial Guides" section which gives information on executive summary, economic trends and outlook, political environment, marketing U.S. products, leading sectors for U.S. exports and investments, trade regulations, investment climate, trade and project financing, and business travel.
• Export.Gov - (registration required) Includes country & industry market reports, video markets report library, broad country information, trade agreements & statistics, customized market research services, agricultural market research, project feasibility studies, country specific quick reference, NIS and Central Europe reports, and industry sector offices.  
• Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Publications: 

      Country Monitor, Country Profile, and Country Report available for countries from around the world in Business  Source Premier ^U

• OECD Economic Outlook - economic information and statistics on member countries. It is available in Business Source Premier ^U
• Mergent Online ^U - From the main search page click on "Click here to view Country Profiles"
• Encyclopaedia Britannica Online ^U - includes country information and statistics. Allows you to make country comparisons and rankings on selected statistical categories.
• The World Bank Group Co1untry Data (World Bank) -- This site provides a wide rage of economic and development indicators for 190 countries. "The headings are: poverty and social, key economic ratios and long term trends, structure of the economy, prices and government finance, trade, balance of payments, and external debt and resource flows. Charts such as the "development diamond" make it easy to see the relationships between indicators and among countries" 
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- This site offers a searchable and browsable collection of economic reports published by the IMF on various topics for countries around the world.
• United Nations Millennium Country Profiles - The United Nations has created 48 social and economic indicators for countries around the world. Among the statistics provided on this site: AIDS cases; access to essential drugs; C02 emissions; children immunizations; debt service; energy usage; Internet users; literacy rates; PC usage; poverty; telephone usage; and more.
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - The Human Development Reports provide demographics and other information for various countries.
• CIA World Factbook - Data available for more than 260 countries.  Includes the map and flag, geographic, population, government, economic, communication, transportation, military, and transnational issue information. Useful for checking the political and financial outlook for various countries. An online version of this publication is also available in the "Reference" section of Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U. 
• Walden’s Country Reports is available in the "Reference" section of  Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe^U.
• Background Notes (U.S. Department of State) - include facts on the country's land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and its relations with other countries and the United States.  
• Country Studies / Area Handbooks (University of Pennsylvania Library) 
• Country Commercial Guides (International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce) -  Contain information on the business and economic situation in foreign countries, including the political climate as it affects U.S. business. Useful for checking the political and financial outlook for various countries. 
• Country Commercial Guides (Bureau of Economics and Business Affairs) - reports present a comprehensive look at countries' commercial environments, using economic, political and market analysis. 
• PricewaterhouseCoopers  (some publications for free) - Select a country from the "Countries Online" menu on the left sidebar. When the page of the country selected opens up, click on "English". Useful publications include the country highlights and doing business guides. Click on "Publications", then "PwC Publications Search" and type topic term (ex. country reports) to retrieve other documents. Click on "Global" at the top of the page, then "International Briefings", then select country to find out the current state of the economy for that country. 
• Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu's Global Business Guides  - The Guides, which are designed for businesses that operate in a crossborder context, provide essential information on the latest legislative and regulatory changes and operating conditions in more than 50 jurisdictions.  The Guides are supplemented by the Snapshot series, at–a–glance summaries of vital information, including tax rates, key economic indicators, and the business and financing climate for nearly 100 jurisdictions.
• Lex Mundi: Guides to Doing Business - give you important country and state-specific information that can be used to research new business markets. Useful publications and resources available at http://www.lexmundi.com/lexmundi/Publications_and_Resources.asp?SnID=1084250119.
• HLB International - provides "Doing business in..." booklets.
• Kwintessential Language and Culture Specialists - country profiles - global guide to culture, customs, and etiquette
• Global IES Publications - taxation of international executives.
• Fragomen - includes a general overview of country summaries, which provides general information about work authorization guidelines.
• Bureau of International Labor Affairs - The Foreign Labor Trends (FLT) report series is designed to be an informative and authoritative source of information on labor institutions, practices, and recent key developments in the countries reported
• globalEDGE (Michigan State University) Includes statistics, history, economy, government, and links of countries.
• Library of Congress Country Studies/Area Handbook - contains studies of 100 countries
• Economist Country Briefings (some information for free)
• NationMaster - This site takes publicly-available statistical data on the world's countries, on everything from crime to education, the economy, demographics and more, and allows users to choose a country and/or a set of statistics to graph a comparison between designated countries. Sources include the CIA World Factbook and various United Nations' publications.
• Summary demographic data for most countries of the world.
• Center for International Business Education and Research (Michigan State University)
• allRefer.com - country studies
• Energy Information Administration: Country Analysis Briefs - Each report begins with a country background, including an overview of its economy and environment, and then provides details on the use and importance of oil, natural gas, coal, electricity, nuclear power, synthetic fuels, and renewables.
• Penn World Tables (CHASS Data Centre, University of Toronto) - Allows for international comparisons, provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 179 countries for some or all of the years 1950-2000. The variables include population, GDP per capita, real gross national product and capita stock per worker. 
• ELDIS Country Profiles (Electronic Development & Environment Information System) -  Multiple Documents providing sectorial profiles of Agriculture, Environment, Economics, Gender, Politics, Education, and Health.  Includes links to current news, APS statistics, CIA and IMF country Profiles, Industrial and Trade profiles, and Human Rights Records. 
• BBC Country Profiles - useful for a quick overview of a country from an authoritative source.
• Yahoo http://biz.yahoo.com/ifc/. Useful for checking the political and financial outlook for various countries. 
• CountryWatch - up-to-date information and news on the countries of the world. 
• IPAnet - Consider this site when considering doing business in or with another country and you need to find official reports and statistical data on its business climate and opportunities.
• Wachovia Country Reports -country outlook reports 

Country Risk Analysis 

To locate key indicators tracing the trends in social and economic development of various countries link to the "Country Risk Analysis" Research Guide. 

Country Statistics 

• Handbook of International Economic Statistics -- 1998  Released by the CIA.  Provides statistics for comparing the economic performance of major countries and regions.   Includes economic profiles, trends, energy, agriculture, foreign trade and aid, and real gross domestic product.  It also includes a collection of maps and charts and tables.   Also available in print at the Reference Desk.
• United Nations Millennium Country Profiles - Among the statistics provided on this site: AIDS cases; access to essential drugs; C02 emissions; children immunizations; debt service; energy usage; Internet users; literacy rates; PC usage; poverty; telephone usage; and more.
• OFFSTATS: Official Statistics on the Web - Provides links to official free sets of statistical data from countries around the globe. Covers all regions, and dozens of topics ranging from agriculture and aid to trade and women. You can search by specific country, region of the world, or by topic.
• WebStat: Statistics on the Web - can be searched by country and subject
• European Union: EuroSstat - free information included 
• InfoNation (United Nations) - This database allows you to view and compare the most up-to-date statistical data for the Member States of the United Nations. (Geography, Economy, Population and Social Indicators)  
• Your Nation -- An interactive online tool allows users to compare statistics for any two countries, ranks countries by specific statistics and it provides summaries of individual countries.   Allows users to customize queries by the world zone, the data category and the current modifier.  Most of the data derives from the CIA World Factbook. 
• Statistics Canada 
• NationMaster.com - generates graphs based on numerical data extracted and allows for comparisons of countries on various statistics  

E-Business

• ebusinessforum.com - Ebusinessforum offers analysis of new business models, best-practice case studies, innovations at work, and offers profiles on how to engage in digital business in different parts of the world

Economy 

• Economy in Latin America -- (LANIC -- UT Austin)
• Institute for International Economics -  analysis of key international economic problems. Click on "Research Areas" to access "Country and Regional Studies". 
• LatinFocus - economic indicators, charts, and other information on Latin American countries.
• Mexican Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico de Mexico)

Ettiquete/Business Culture Guides 

• ExecutivePlanet.com -  This site provides "business culture guides" that contain information and advice on the appropriate etiquette and cultural dos and don'ts when doing business in 40 countries around the world (including the U.S.).

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) 

• UNCTAD - compiles statistics on foreign direct investment (FDI) such as data on FDI stocks/flows by rough industry and by geographic destination/origin. Use theWorld Investment Directory link for country profiles.
• OECD - publishes reports on foreign direct investment for various countries available for free online.

Governments on the Web

• American Governments on the Web

Latin America also see "General Information" sources in this guide

• Latin Focus - country focus, economic reports, and more
• Latinvestor -  within each country and industry you can select companies for financial analysts reports
• INCAE Business School - gateway to other sites
• Latin American Network Information Centre (LANIC) - Country section covering all of Central and South America which provides links to useful trade, finance, and business sites. 

Portals/Web Directories/Search Engines

• Country Based Search Engines (Phyl Bradley) - Country and regional search engines. Use for research focusing on a particular geographic region of the globe and need to browse or search a collection of pages and sites related to that area.
• International Business Resources: GlobalEDGE (Michigan State University)
• Virtual International Business & Economic Sources -- (VIBES) International Trade Information.   Provides over 1,600 links to Internet sources of international business and economic information that are in English and available free of charge.  Links include: Full-text files of recent articles and research reports, Statistical tables and graphs, Meta pages (pages with links to other sources). 

Research Centers

• The Harvard Institute for Internatinonal Development 

Print Sources

• Area Handbook Series -- Country studies for 194 countries. Supt. of Docs., U.S. Government Publications Office, Publication dates varies.  Location:  GOV DOCS REF D 840.D36
• Background Notes -- United States Department of State  Bureau of Public Affairs  Office of Public Communication. DOCS  FED S1.123:  Also available online at http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/
• Country Studies/Area Handbook Series -- "Most books in the series deal with a particular foreign country describing and analyzing its political, economic, social and national security systems and institutions, and examining the interrelationships of those systems and the ways they are shaped by cultural factors". 
  Location:  DOCS REF D840.D36  For more updated information check the online version Library of Congress Country Studies/Area Handbook
• CULTUREGRAMS -- A wealth of information about more than 165 countries, emphasizes on the unique values, customs, and cultural assumptions of the people described.  "people maps"    
  Location:  REF DESK  GT150C851998 V.1 & V.2 
• Demographic Yearbook=Annuaire Demographique REF HA17 .D45
• The Europa World Year Book - Location: REF Desk JN1 .E85   
• Financial Accounts of OECD Countries -- Provides data on Financial Accounts for OECD countries.  Regroups the flow accounts and the balance-sheet accounts by institutional sector and by type of financial instrument.   Statistical tables that provide information for analyzing the structure of financial systems and the development over a long period. Location:  REF HG 185.C2O35 
• Foreign Economic Trends and their Implications to the United States -- U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration.    
  Location:  Doc FED C61.11:  Check their Country Commercial Guides at http://www.usatrade.gov/website/ccg.nsf
• Foreign Labor Trends -- U.S. Department of Labor  Bureau of International Labor Affairs. 
  DOCS FED L29.16: 
• International Financial Statistics -- It publishes for most countries of the world, current data on exchange rates, international liquidity, international banking, money and banking, interest rates, prices, production, international transactions (including balance of payments and international investment position), government finance, and national accounts.  Information is presented in tables for specific countries.  Location: REF HG3881.I626  Most current volume at Reference Desk.  We also own the Yearbook.
• Overseas Business Reports -- U.S. Department of Commerce.   International Trade Administration.  Location:  DOCS  C61.12: 83-10  (1982-1991)  Ceased publication.  Most current one available through the University of Missouri-St. Louis http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/obr/index.html
• World Business & Economic Review -- Compiled by Walden Publishing Ltd. 1994. 
  Location:  REF HF 5030.W35 1994 
• World Factbook -- (Washington, D.C. : CD-ROM version) Central Intelligence Agency by the Supt. of Docs., Location:  REF DESK PREX 3.15/2: Updated.  Also available on line http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

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Last updated: 12/15/06