Public Diplomacy: Country Risk Analysis

this is a full-service credit rating organization serving the insurance industry that defines country risk as the risk that country-specific factors could adversely affect an insurer's ability to meet its financial obligations. Countries are placed into one of five tiers, ranging from Country Risk Tier 1, denoting a stable environment with the least amount of risk, to Country Risk Tier 5 for countries that pose the most risk and, therefore, the greatest challenge to an insurer's financial stability, strength, and performance.

A trade receivables consulting firm that provides country risk data for nearly every country of the world and sectorial risk rating assessment for fourteen sectors. Most of these ratings are brief but they are updated twice per year.

A user-friendly database for accessing most of the publicly available indicators related to governance. It contains approximately 400 governance indicators produced by 25 different multilateral organizations, NGOs, private firms, and academic institutions.

A source of business intelligence on political and economic trends in 200 countries. An overall profile of each country is provided annually and a current report is produced quarterly. Both include current detailed statistics. Excellent resources for obtaining forecasts for future economic and political developments.

Provides access to survey data for all countries in the survey with breakdowns for economic, political and structural risk scores; sub-factor scores for over fifteen individual risk variables. Requires free registration to access database.

Produced by the conservative non-partisan think tank Heritage Foundation, this site provides analysis of 161 countries with data on trade policy, fiscal burden, governmental intervention, monetary policy, foreign investment, banking and finance, wages and prices, property rights, regulation, and black market.

ISI Emerging Markets (now known as EMIS) provides coverage of emerging economies in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America including articles, financial statements, industry analyses, equity quotes, macroeconomic statistics, and market-specific information.You should see a list of risk-related reports for your country. Note: ISI does not include Japan, the United States, or countries in Western Europe.

Publications portal of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and consists of three sections that include books and reports by theme, periodicals, and statistics. These online services include access to OECD textual publications as well as publications the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the International Transport Forum (ITF) in PDF form and access to OECD statistical databases in which data can be selected and downloaded as .xls, .csv, or .ivt files. Access is available for titles published from January 1998 onwards.

The Passport/GMID (Global Market Information Database) by Euromonitor provides a wide range of consumer market and industry information in more than 80 countries around the world. It includes company profiles, some with SWOT analysis, country briefings, sector briefings, sector data, industry watch articles and detailed Consumer Lifestyle reports

a nonpartisan global network of more than 90 locally established national chapters focused on fighting corruption in the national arena and promoting transparency in elections, in public administration, in procurement and business. Site includes news and special reports, ongoing surveys on various types of corruption including a global corruption barometer, a bribe payers survey, and a corruption perceptions index.