• Go to NUS Library's Digital Library at http://www.lib.nus.edu.sg/digital/
• Select Reference Databases under Browse by type of material and click GO.
• Select the database to search.

How unique are they?

All these EIU databases are unique in their own right yet they share the same quality of information you would expect from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

What is the difference between EIU.com, ViewsWire Asia and Country Data? It's all very simple. Just keep this in mind:

EIU.com contains the electronic version of the quarterly EIU Asian Country Reports, Country Forecasts, Country Finance and Country Profiles. These digitised reports contain in-depth analyses of various Asian countries.

EIU ViewsWire Asia, on the other hand, gives snapshots or summaries of individual Asian countries. A good example would be the Country Forecast. This publication is available in both EIU.com as well as EIU ViewsWire Asia. But what is presented in ViewsWire Asia is the concise and summarised version while EIU.com contains the in-depth and detailed report.

Sample page from EIU.com on Singapore.

EIU ViewsWire Asia does not only contain summarised reports. It is updated daily with at least 100 articles concerning economic, political and business events happening in Asia. However ViewsWire Asia is not a news Web site; as stated in its Web site, it provides views. Information presented is analytical. There are three basic categories; briefings, forecasts and background information. Briefings give EIU's perspectives or reviews on the impact of recent events on economic, political and business conditions. Forecasting information includes tables of macroeconomic forecasts, summaries of EIU's expectations and forecasts of likely future trends of various Asian countries. A country's economic data, tax and trade regulations and quarterly indicators are found under the Background category.

Sample page from EIU ViewsWire Asia.

So what about EIU Country Data? EIU Country Data does not provide analyses and reviews. It is a statistical database. It contains economic indicators and forecasts from 115 countries around the world (not just Asia). EIU forecasting teams retrieve data from various sources and devote their time to forecasting. The economic variables provided for each country are categorised under Economic Structure, Foreign Payments, External Debt Stock, External Debt Service, External Trade, Trends in Foreign Trade, Data with Consistent Based Year and Quarterly Indicators. The data is updated monthly and cumulated for a rolling period of three years.

Users of EIU Country Data could use the analytical functions to create two-dimensional segmentation for groups of countries, create scattergraphs, rank selected countries according to a selected variable and present it graphically or display the distribution of a selected economic series by decile and quartile.

Sample page from EIU Country Data.

So which do you choose? Why not all? Each EIU database complements the others. Enjoy what these three EIU Web databases have to offer.

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