In Assignment 1, you will learn how to collect economic data, using Economic Indicators that are readily available to consumers online. Economic Indicators are key statistics or metrics used to study the status of the overall economy, industry segments, and specific companies.
To help you learn how Economic Indicators work, JWMI has created a Worksheet, called GUIDES, which will take you step by step through the process of collecting the data needed for Assignment 1.
You will use the Worksheet provided to research key economic information about TWO countries: a target country that you select and your home country. The target country is a potential overseas location for your current company (or a company of interest).
In order to achieve this expansion, you will select ONE of the following strategies:
Entering into a new market in the target country; or
Increasing the size of an existing division located in the target country; or
Adding a new product or service to an existing division located in the target country.
For most students, your home country is the United States, but for international students, it is your country of residence. Exceptions are possible if you have a unique situation – contact your Professor.
Use your current company and its industry for context. If your company is not currently operating globally, imagine that it is considering entry into one of the markets below. It is your task to assess the economic conditions in relation to your company’s unique profile and needs, so as to assess whether expansion into the potential overseas market makes sense for your business.
The countries that I have selected are Germany and United States.
All the required data can be found on the Trading Economics and/or the other websites below:
Access the Trading Economics website at: http://www.tradingeconomics.comLinks to an external site.
Access the World Factbook website at: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/Links to an external site.
Access the Federal Reserve (FRED) website at: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/Links to an external site.
TIP: To locate Economic Indicators not found on the Trading Economics website main landing page, click the INDICATORS drop-down menu at the top of the page, to see the full list of available Indicators.
