The country report should include a brief historical overview of the country you chose for this
assignment. In addition to economic variables, the report should include some demographic and social
variables that will allow a characterization of the structure of the economy and the level of development
of the country. Students should use the World Development Indicators and the CIA world factbook as the
main sources of information for this report. In addition to these sources, you can use internationally
recognized sources such as the UN, World Health Organization, IMF, etc. Use tables, narrative
explanations, graphs and/or maps to convey important information efficiently. When presenting a table
or a time series graph you should provide an analysis or description of the information contained in the
table or graph. For all the variables that you obtain data for, you will observe that they change overtime.
Can you identify specific trends over different periods of time? Have some of the outcomes (e.g. poverty
or inequality) improved, remain stagnant or worsened over time?
Last but not least, you will explore some cultural aspects of the country by identifying traditional music
of the country. Please search “Music of [name of the country]” in google, and you will get a Wikipedia
article about it. Read the article and listen to some of the suggested music in the article (YouTube will be
helpful here). Next, pick the piece that you like the most and provide a YouTube link in your country
report.
Here is a suggested outline for the paper. Students may add some few more variables if necessary.
I. Country general background, which should include some relevant points about the history
of the country. Moreover, this section should include the following information:
Geography
a) Location
b) Area
c) Natural resources
It should also include the following table:
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Population
Birth rate
Crude Death rate
Population growth
rate
Labor force
Urban population
and information for the latest year available for these variables:
Demographic variables
a) Ethnic groups
b) Median age (current)
c) Age dependency ratio
II. The domestic economy
Create a yearly time series graph for each of the following variables starting in 1980 up until
the latest available year (2018 or 2019 for most cases):
Real GDP
Real GDP per capita
Inflation rate
Unemployment rate
Based on the graphs, can you identify periods of fast, stagnant, or slow economic growth? Can you
identify periods of time of economic decline? Do the same with the graphs of inflation and
unemployment.
Create the following table:
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019
Agriculture (% of GDP)
Industry (% of GDP)
Services (% of GDP)
Employment in agriculture
Based on the information provided by the table above, has the country experienced structural
transformation as measured by the changes in agriculture, industry and services as percentage of GDP?
Identify the main Agricultural products and Industries of the country.
International trade
Include current information about the following variables:
a) Imports partners
b) Imports – commodities
c) Exports – partners
d) Exports – commodities
Create a yearly time series graph for each of the following variables starting in 1980 up until the latest
available year (2018 or 2019 for most cases):
e) Exports and imports (in millions of US dollars)
f) Trade balance
Include the following table
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Official Exchange rate
Import volume
Export volume
Social indicators – Present and discuss relevant social indicators about the country.
a. Poverty
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Poverty ($1.90 a day)
Poverty ($3.20 a day)
Poverty ($5.50 a day)
b. Inequality
1980 1990 2000 2005 2010 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Income share held by highest 10%
Income share held by lowest 10%
Income share held by lowest 20%
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Gini index
III. Music
Provide the YouTube link of the musical piece that you chose from the country you are
studying.
IV. Conclusions
In this section, based on all your findings, you should discuss some of the aspects that you
consider are the most relevant for the country.