Success in international business often depends on a firm ob-taining information about foreign markets so that it can make exporting, importing, and investment decisions. Among the most useful sources are the following: Survey of Current Business , published monthly by the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a basic source of statistical data on the U.S. economy. It provides detailed analyses of international trade and investment activities affecting the United States. The World Factbook provides basic geographic, ethnic, reli-gious, political, and economic information on all countries. It is put out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and is particu-larly useful because it includes data about small, obscure, and po-litically controversial areas. For example, if you were an execu-tive for Forum Energy PLC, a British company that was granted rights by the Philippine’s government to hunt for oil and gas around the Spratly Islands, The World Factbook is one of the few sources in which you could learn that the islands, many of which are under water at high tide, have no permanent population yet are claimed and garrisoned by five different countries—China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Armed with this information, you would realize that Forum’s explorations would be extremely sensitive and possibly the target of political conflict. World Development Report and World Development Indicators , published annually by the World Bank, present numerous tables detailing information about World Bank mem-bers, including population, income and income distribution, infrastructure, government expenditures, trade, production, liv-ing standards, health, education, and urbanization. International Trade Statistics Yearbook is an annual United Nations report that provides detailed data on exports and im-ports, classified by country and by commodity. The report is an excellent source of minutiae—for example, the leading exporters and importers of propane and butane in 2009, 2010, and 2011. However, it is rather clumsy to use when time-series information is required—for example, Denmark’s total annual exports from 1986 to 2012. Balance of Payments Statistics, International Financial Statistics , and
Direction of Trade statistics are report
published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Balance of Payments Statistics, issued annually, contains data about bal-ance of payments performances of IMF members. The monthly International Financial Statistics offers international and do-mestic financial data on members’ domestic interest rates, money and banking indicators, prices, exports, and exchange rates. Direction of Trade Statistics details the exports and im-ports of each IMF member on a quarterly basis. World Investment Report is produced annually by the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development. It is a primary source of statistics regarding FDI flows and stocks into and from countries. It also provides detailed information about the role of transnational corporations (the United Nations’ pre-ferred term for MNCs) in FDI.Go to your library or surf the Internet to examine each of these standard references. Then answer the following questions:
1. What was the total value of U.S. imports from Belgium last year? Of U.S. exports to Belgium?
2. What is the total level of U.S. investments in Belgium? Of Belgian investments in the United States?
3. Profile the economy of Belgium: What is its GDP? What is its per capita income? How fast is its economy growing? What are its major exports and imports? Who are its major trading partners?
4. Profile the people of Belgium: What languages do they speak? What is their average educational level? What is their life expectancy? How fast is the population growing?