The global financial crisis of 2008‐2009, the debt crisis in Greece, rising tensions in the Korean peninsula and the bursting of China's property bubble all indicate the constant requirement for current business information. Now in its seventeenth edition, Euromonitor's World Economic Factbook presents “unique compilation of hard‐to‐get political and economic information on 204 countries of the world, laid out in a concise and above all completely regular format”.
The volume is arranged in three sections with the first section presenting maps of the different regions of the world. Section two presents comparative world ranking tables across 15 different variables including area, population, GDP, inflation, tourism, imports and exports. These tables are extremely useful as you can see at a glance the most densely populated countries; the percentage of people living in cities; average household sizes around the world; and identify where people live longest. These also throw up some startling facts; for example, almost 50 per cent the population of both Niger and Uganda is under 14 years of age. The enormous disparity across the world also becomes evident – China is expected to have 146 million people over 65 by 2015 while life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen from 59 years in 1992 to less than 35 years today.
The main part of this volume presents economic data on 205 countries – not the 204 as the introduction indicates – with each being treated in a standard format over a two‐page spread. The left‐hand page is mostly textual and gives details on the government, including political structure and background on the last elections; political risk; international disputes; main industries; economy and energy. These are just snapshots of key trends, with a small typeface being used to include as much information as possible. The amount of detail given does vary considerably across countries with United Arab Emirates filling a complete page while Samoa requires only one third. The content here is, however, relatively current; for example, results are given for the elections in Moldova in July and in Japan in August 2009.
The right‐hand page for each country presents the statistical data. Data is given, where available, for 2008 together with the three preceding years and covers inflation, GDP, consumption, population, life expectancy, tourism receipts and spending, and imports and exports from key trading countries. The consistency of approach that we have come to expect from Euromonitor allows for instant access to data pulled together from a variety of statistical sources.
The economic volatility of many countries makes the need for high‐quality and timely information absolutely critical. This directory is not cheap. With more and more resources becoming freely accessible on the internet, including the recent launch by the World Bank of access to its databases on developing economies, users need to weigh up the cost of convenience versus the time and effort involved in collecting the data themselves.
