Economic Indicators: Essential Information for Economic Projects in 185 Countries/Territories

Jeffrey Moon is head of the Documents Reference/Data Centre at Queen’s
University.

Economic Indicators is short on preliminaries and gets right to the
point—a vast array of country-level statistics and information. In
fact, the preliminaries consist simply of a table of contents and a
guide to country listings. After that, you’re right into the “good
stuff”: a consistently organized, two-page spread for each country,
including numbers, colour maps, charts, and graphs. The maps are based
on satellite imagery and have the country’s location pinpointed on a
smaller inset map. This feature provides the geographically challenged
among us with a basic orientation. Major cities and borders are overlaid
on each map.

Each listing provides the obvious, including statistics such as
population, life expectancy, literacy, and mortality rates, along with
basic facts such as languages spoken, religions, and membership in
international organizations.

Country listings provide detailed economic statistics. These include
corporate tax rates, foreign currency ratings (S&P, Moody’s, Fitch),
and a variety of current and historical currency data. Currency data is
provided in the contexts of U.S. and Canadian dollars and the Mexican
peso. This kind of economic detail is tailored for economists, but would
be of use to interdisciplinary researchers as well.

Web access is included with an annual subscription to this quarterly
publication. Information on the web is updated monthly. Data tables are
not explicitly downloadable, but a simple copy/paste (into Excel 2000)
produced a ready-to-use spreadsheet.

In addition to the sources already mentioned, this book relies on Ernst
& Young, Euromoney Magazine, the United Nations, and the CIA World
Factbook. Data is provided for a 10-year period, with monthly data for
the current year.

Beaudry, has produced a valuable contribution to the growing range of
country-level statistical compilations. Although its target audience is
economists seeking a convenient source with which to build credible
financial models, Economic Indicators should appeal to a broader
research audience.