Country Profiles
Jeannie Bail
Introduction
When analyzing a foreign company, or looking into expanding into a new international market, it is important to have an understanding of the external factors that are at play, as previously discussed with the PESTLE framework example. Country profiles are excellent first resources to consult, as they contain essential political, economic, regulatory and socio-demographic data on countries in summarized format. Profiles can be found from a wide range of respected resources, both free and subscription-based. Some profiles include a country risk rating, which indicates the level of risk involved with investing in that location. The higher the risk score, the more risky the investment environment.
Subscription-Based Country Profile Sources
ABI Inform Complete: Contains country profiles from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Fitch Solutions and Oxford Economics.
How to find: In Advanced Search, enter the country name in the main search box, select Country Report under Document Type. Sort results by Most Recent First.
Example.
Business Source Ultimate: Contains country profiles from a wide range of publishers, including Fitch Solutions, MarketLine (including PESTLE Insights), IHS Markit, CountryWatch, OECD and PRS Group (Political Risk Yearbook).
How to find: Enter your selected country in the main search box and limit your results to Country Report under Publication Type.
Example.
First Research Industry Profiles (Mergent Intellect): Features State Profiles for the U.S., in addition to Country Information that contains risk trends from Dun & Bradstreet.
How to find: From the Mergent Intellect home page, select First Research. You will be brought to the First Research site and prompted to enter your email address. Select either International Global Content (Country Information) or North America Regional Info (State & Province Profiles).
Example.
Mergent Intellect Database: International Global Content (NYPL)
Mergent Online: In addition to company data, Mergent provides Country Profiles that contain overviews of key areas such as the economy, industry, security trade, geography & history, people, media and transportation.
How to find: There is a grey box titled Country Profile located on the right-hand side of the home page. Select a country from the drop-down list.
Example.
OECD iLibrary: This is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and contains OECD Economic Surveys by country. Many surveys are also available in French.
How to find: Go to Browse by Country and select country
Example.
Passport GMID (Euromonitor): Not only is Passport your go-to resource for international market research, it also contains socio-economic country data that spans 206 countries. In addition to country reports, it contains Political, Economic, Social and Technological (PEST) analysis reports.
How to find: Economies > Business Dynamics > Explore Analysis > Country Report > Busin