Sourcing country analysis – a guide to Library sources

For those researching a country, you will find that country information tends to take two forms: 

• Analysis – country reports are descriptive reports covering most areas of interest on a country. They contain an analysis of the business environment and include information on political, environmental, social, technological and risk factors. These are the best place to start your research. 
• Datasets – raw data, e.g. GDP, inflation figures, etc.. These are generally downloadable to Excel.

In this post, we focus on sources for country analysis. For sources of data, please scroll down.

SOM Library’s best sources for country analysis are:

• FitchConnect 
• Passport

FitchConnect

Under the heading of BMI, FitchConnect contains in-depth country risk reports for over 200 countries. Content includes SWOT analysis, economic outlook, political outlook and 10 year forecasts.

The easiest route to Fitch’s country risk reports is to first click on BMI on the dark blue bar and then to select ‘Country Risk’ from the options listed. 

Once you arrive at the Country Risk homepage, simply find the menu for Country Risk country pages and select your country from the dropdown menu.

 

From the country page, you can peruse the summary information or select the ‘Reports’ tab to view the full-length reports. 

The Reports tab will include not only country-specific reports, but also regional reports that may be relevant to your research. To open any report, simply click on its title.

Ta-dah! Now just sit back and read! Reports include a SWOT analysis, plus sections on trade, monetary and fiscal policy, currency, politics and detailed macroeconomic analysis and forecasts. Read on-screen or download to pdf. 

Passport

Passport provides PEST analyses and Economy, Finance and Trade reports for individual countries. To access these, first select ‘Economies’ from the menu bar at the top of the Passport homepage, then focus on the ‘Explore analysis’ box.

From here, select ‘Economy, Finance and Trade’ > ‘Country Report’ > ‘Economy, Finance and Trade’ (yes, again) > then select your country of interest and click on ‘Go’ to view the reports available.

Download and print options are available. 

 

If country coverage is patchy…

Usually the resources listed above will provide you with more than enough analysis for your research. If not, or if you are looking for something specific, the journal databases listed below can be useful. Both include some country profiles. Select this as your ‘publication type’ on the advanced search screen.

• ProQuest One Business
• EBSCO Business Source Complete

You may also be interested in…

Sources of macroeconomic data:

• Sourcing industry and economic data in FitchConnect
• Finding economic data on Passport
• Introducing… the UK Data Service

Other sources of macroeconomic data and analysis:

• Introducing… Bloomberg Trade Flows
• How can I find out about country stability and risk?

If you have any questions about sourcing country information – either data or analysis – please contact the SOM Library.

Feature image from Pixabay. Available at: https://pixabay.com/photos/earth-internet-globalisation-2254769/