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Country Information

Many publishers have prepared paper, CD ROM and web resources that provide excellent statistical, topical and analytical overviews of the nations of the world. The Business Library at Western has endeavoured to provide access to these publications in many formats. Below, you will find descriptions, access points and links to some of the more prominent producers of country information. Considerable additional country-related information is available in other sources and on other electronic products in the Business Library.

Economist Intelligence Unit
This product provides access to the full text of Economist Intelligence Unit publications.

Overseas Private Investment Corporation is an excellent resource for country information and provides links to a large number of online resources for country information - not only limited to investment information.
World Bank E-Library
The World Bank e-Library is an electronic portal to the World Bank's full-text collection of books, reports, and other documents. It brings together in a fully indexed and cross-searchable database, over 1,250 titles published by the World Bank during the past several years as well as over 1,800 research working papers- a total of over 3,000 documents.		 Passport GMID
Contains over a million economic and marketing statistics for 205 countries with country profiles and trend analyses from 1977-2016. It also contains 6-year historic market size data for more than 330 consumer products in 52 countries, plus 5-year forecasts; lifestyle indicators such as eating and drinking habits, home ownership trends and crime patterns for 71 countries worldwide and lifestyle reports for 65 countries.
GDF Online contains statistical data for the 147 countries and country groups. The database covers external debt stocks and flows, major economic aggregates, and key debt ratios as well as average terms of new commitments, currency composition of long-term debt, debt restructuring, and scheduled debt service projections. CultureGrams
(In Library Use Only - Not Available Remotely) These reports are essentially brief guides to the nations of the world. Each five page entry contains general information about the country and more specific information about such things as holidays, customs, gestures, eating and health and education.
The World Bank e-Library is an electronic portal to the World Bank's full-text collection of books, reports, and other documents. It brings together in a fully indexed and cross-searchable database, over 1,250 titles published by the World Bank during the past several years as well as over 1,800 research working papers- a total of over 3,000 documents

CIAO and International Business
 This database provides full-text coverage of virtually every aspect of international affairs ... including political economy, trade and development, globalization, emerging markets, country analysis, governmental and transnational regulation, and regional economic cooperation
ISI's Emerging Markets
According to ISI, 300 additional content providers have been added along with over 1200 publications. Among the new countries covered are Belarus, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Australia and Saudi Arabia. As of mid-January 2005 you will also find more countries from Sub-Saharan Africa including: Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Naturally these new additions came with a new price. Use of the product is fairly high, however, and about 4500 searches were performed on ISI during the past year. A large number of sources were used and information was sought about countries widely scattered around the globe. A surprising number of documents were retrieved in their original language (e.g. Chinese). Any comments or observations you have about the product can be sent to buslib@ivey.uwo.ca.		 Library of Congress Country Studies provide invaluable historical material on 85 countries. Although the statistical information on some countries may not be up-to-date, the subject coverage is extensive.
BBC Country Profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions. They also include audio or video clips from BBC archives. Select a country, territory or international organisation from the menus.
Political Risk Yearbook Online
Asia Pacific Business

 Geography IQ: GeographyIQ is an online world atlas packed with geographic, economic, political, historical and cultural information.

Lexis Nexis Use the REFERENCE library and Country Profile. or In the NEWS library - Guided News - Choose WORLD NEWS and the broad geographic area from the drop down boxes - type country(france) and choose In Full Text from the drop down. Add any other preferred search criteria (e.g. economic conditions)

 InfoNation

Information Technology Landscape in Nations
Portals to the World

Country Library from Tradeport
Trade, market research, industry information.

 Library of Congress Country Studies
This online series contains studies of 100 countries . The coverage includes political and social analyses and economic system data .
ProQuest Direct is a database which will provide journal articles dealing with social and business conditions within various countries. Articles may be in abstract, full-text, or full-text plus graphics format. To access ProQuest Direct one must have a UWO/Ivey related IP address. Once again, ProQuest Direct is available through the web site listed above.
Also through ProQuest, Business and Industry is available. Provides patrons with material dealing with companies and industries and the countries in which they do business. There is some statistical information presented in the form of tables. Abstracts and full-text articles cover topics international in nature.		 Department of State site, produced by the U.S. State Department, provides access to reports prepared annually by U.S. embassies. These reports represent a comprehensive look at countries’ commercial environments, using economic, political and market analysis. The site also provides links to specific to human rights practices, travel information and global terrorism.

International Monetary Fund
The site provides reports and statistical summaries for a number of member countries. Some require Adobe Acrobat to view. Data are current and comparative statistics are often supplied. Accessing www.imf.org and choosing the Site Map or Index icon provides further avenues for information gathering .

 Bloomberg (in-library use only) provides access to the TOP news of the day world-wide. One is also able to access a broad spectrum of economic statistics using the ECST command. See staff for assistance.
Business and Economics Numerical Data maintained by the University of Michigan. Contrains country reports, World Factbooks, Economic reports, and other statistics. Easystream and its counterpart Datastream (in-library use only) provide current macroeconomic data. Please see the Business Library staff for assistance. This database is only available in the Business Library in London.