Tag: Global Insight

Database of the Month: IHS Connect (formerly IHS Global Insight)

Stephen

ihsconnectFor a number of years the Bentley University Library has relied upon IHS Global Insight to provide us with comprehensive economic and country risk data.  Recently IHS has transitioned the content we received via Global Insight  into a new product, IHS Connect.  The IHS Country Profiles can now be found under the “geography” tab at the top of each IHS Connect page.  User can search for Country Reports based on geographic location for Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.   The country reports are comprehensive, updated reports across major factors shaping foreign investment: political, economic, legal, tax, operational and security environment.  Country reports has a content area labeled “Research and Data Center” that provides Bentley users with exchange rates and CPI tables, monthly forecast tables, and quarterly forecast tables.  The tabular data is downloadable with Excel.

The Growth Outlook content area provides users with a number of tables based on key economic indicators, such as production and inflation, trade and exchange rates.  Key indicator tables can be exported to PDF, Excel and PowerPoint.  IHS provides 6-8 month projections of key indicators.  The Country Rankings content area  provides users with the ability to build a rankings table for 206 countries.  Countries can be ranked by GDP, CPI, foreign Debt, International Reserves, Long-term Interest Rates, and a number of other categories.  Any table in this section of IHS Connect can easily be downloaded to Excel.

A full country report is provided for each country covered by IHS.  Each report includes a Country Risk Statement prepared by IHS.  Each report also includes a Short-term Outlook section as well as Medium- and Long-term Outlook. The Short-term Outlook provides key points and analysis with recent and projected key macro-economic indicators.  The Medium- and Long-term Outlook section provides for a deeper analysis of each country’s economic growth.   Growth, labor markets, inflation, exchange rates, monetary and fiscal policy, and the external sector of each country are covered in the narrative of each country report.

Under the “Insight” tab users can find the Risks and Ratings content area.   This section provides tables of the IHS Country Risks and sovereign risks.  The IHS Country Risks provide weighted  risks (Political 25%, Economic 25%, Legal 15%, Tax 15%, Operational 10%, Security 10%) for doing business in all of the countries covered in the database.  The sovereign risk content area provides a quick tabular view of medium term risk with ratings from Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P.

IHS Connect is a large, comprehensive database with some content areas that are  not available to members of the Bentley community.   When logged into the database users will notice that some content areas are “grayed out” or a “lock” icon is used as an indicator that we do not have access to that content.

IHS Connect can be accessed via the Bentley Library’s Databases page (http://library.bentley.edu/research/databasesaz.asp) or directly at http://ezp.bentley.edu/login?url=http://connect.ihs.com.

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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to an important research database, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases) please Ask a Librarian. If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please contact the Reference Desk.

Database of the Month: Global Insight

Lisa

Global Insight is an overlooked gem of a resource – providing access to expert economic, financial, and political analysis for 204 countries.

The information you’ll find in Global Insight is not available from any of our other databases.  If you were to log-in to Global Insight today you would find:

  • same-day analysis of the current economic situation in Greece
  • a special report on the political, social and economic implications of the history-making elections taking place in the Philippines next month
  • detailed country profiles for 204 countries written by experts who have analyzed recent political, economic, security, legal, tax and operational factors, and which also includes a country risk assessment and sovereign risk ratings
  • and much, much more…

You would be hard-pressed to find a better source for analysis of the risk and business environment of developed and emerging countries, regions, and industries. Global Insight also provides extensive historical data sets and forecasts for all countries.

Description & Key Features

Analysis:

The service’s analytical content consists of four core elements that are fully integrated and revised continuously.

  • Same-Day Analysis Articles & Special Reports: Daily articles track risk- and business-related developments worldwide, as well as economic data releases. Special Reports investigate key topics in greater depth.  Article topics range from cabinet reshuffles and policy initiatives to economic data releases and terrorist threats.
  • Country Reports: In-depth, consistently structured background reports covering the political, economic, security and general business environment in each country.
  • Country Risk Ratings: A unique six-factor system focusing on foreign direct investment-related risk, tightly integrated with Same-Day Analysis articles and Country Reports. For all 204 countries, Global Insight grades six different risk factors: political, economic, legal, tax, operational, and security. These are then weighted and combined to form the overall country risk rating.
  • Sovereign Risk Ratings: An assessment of the financial stability and credit-worthiness of all countries worldwide, plus side-by-side comparisons with the major ratings agencies.

Economic Data:

Global Insight includes a wealth of economic data for each country.  The datasets include historical data for some variables as far back as 1979, and long-term forecasts to 2040. Every quarter, Global Insight produces detailed forecasts for up to 150 key economic indicators. The most important concepts—GDP, exchange rate, consumer prices, etc.—are forecasted for all countries; for the larger countries additional concepts include detailed accounts for the government and household sectors, and disaggregated trade accounts.

Connect to this database:

Please visit the Global Insight database to explore this valuable database further, or visit our Databases page to view a complete list of our resources.

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Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to an important research database, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases) please contact the Reference Desk.  If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please contact our Coordinator of User Education, Elizabeth Galoozis.