The World Bank's Doing Business Project

Today I learnt that the World Bank’s Doing Business Project measures and compares business regulations and their enforcement across 183 countries.

OK, so I already knew that UKTI produces “Doing business in...” guides that cover a wide range of countries, and I also knew that PLC produces “Doing business in…” legal guides for a number of jurisdictions across the globe. I’m not too sure how I missed the World Bank’s Doing Business project and website until now…

Doing Business gathers quantitative data to compare business regulation environments in 183 countries. In doing so, it “encourages countries to compete towards more efficient regulation” and “offers measurable benchmarks for reform”. Countries are ranked according to their ease of doing business. The following topics are examined and included in the ranking:

Starting a business

Dealing with construction permits

Getting electricity

Registering property

Getting credit

Protecting investors

Paying taxes

Trading across borders

Enforcing contracts

Resolving insolvency

You can view the data and summary for each country, or download the Economy Profile. You can also view the historical data back to 2003, allowing you to see how the ease of doing business in a particular country has changed over time.

Doing Business website:

http://www.doingbusiness.org/

Free Access to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Forecasting Service

Today I learnt that the EIU makes some reports available for free.

Until now I had assumed you needed to pay for EIU reports (when they aren't available on Nexis). Today I ventured on to the EIU website and after I had registered I was able to access the Global Forecasting reports (which is what I needed) and also analysis and forecasts for 187 countries (which I didn't need, but it might be useful some other time).

http://gfs.eiu.com/about/

Country Research - FCO Country Profiles

Today I learnt that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) produces country profiles, which could be used as an alternative to the CIA's World Factbook.
Compiled by "knowledgeable experts" (sounds good so far) the FCO's country profiles include an overview (giving key facts like population, area, currency, etc) and sections on the economy, history, international relations, geography, trade & investment and politics.
There's also a link to the FCO's "travel advice" pages for each country.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/