A major multinational corporation has appointed you as an economic advisor. You are requested to compile a report regarding the macroeconomic environment in two countries where the company operates

Economics Assignment Brief

A. Assignment question

A major multinational corporation has appointed you as an economic advisor. You are requested to compile a report regarding the macroeconomic environment in two countries where the company operates and explain how it might affect the company’s economic activity.

B. Specifications

Choose an existing company with any type of international activity. This company must operate in both of your chosen countries, e.g. exporting to them, as part of a joint venture, via a subsidiary etc.CHOOSE only ONE PRODUCT or one group of products that your company sells in both of your chosen countries. Please note that companies may have a wide portfolio of goods and/or services, but you should only analyse one of them in this report, so that your analysis may be feasible.Choose the two countries from section C below: one country from List 1 and one country from List 2.The analysis in your report must include:A brief description of the company, and a clear statement of the product/group of products that you chose to focus your analysis on in both countries.An analysis of the market structure (competition) in which your company operates in the two countries.A comparative analysis of the impact that the major macroeconomic indicators (listed in Section D below) have on company’s economic activity (costs, revenues and profits) in the two countries of your choice.An analysis of the impact that monetary and fiscal policy instruments that are relevant to your company has on company’s economic activity (costs, revenues and profits) in the two countries of your choice.An analysis of the impact that relevant foreign trade policy instruments, which derive from your two countries’ WTO and/or RTA memberships, has on company’s economic activity (costs and revenues) both countries.

C. Country Lists

List 1

List 2

Australia

Albania

France

Brazil

Germany

China

Italy

India

Japan

Mexico

South Korea

Nigeria

Spain

Peru

Sweden

Russia

United Kingdom

South Africa

United States

Turkey

D. Macroeconomic indicators[1] to be analysed for the last 10 available  years:

GDP growth rateGDP per capita, constant (USD) prices, PPPInflation rateUnemployment rate (ILO measure)Monetary Policy Interest RateGeneral government balances/Government budget (% of GDP)Current Account Balance (% of GDP)Exchange rates (National Currency/USD OR National Currency/Euro)[2]       

E. Project 1 Submission Guidelines

Length

2,500 words, +/- 10% (excluding tables, graphs, footnotes, appendices, and references)

Presentation

Arial 12 fonts, 1 ½ spacing, justified text

References

Use APA7 Referencing Style

F. Marking criteria and weights

CRITERIA

WEIGHTS

Brief description of the company and analysis of the market structure in which the company operates for the two countries

20%

Data collection (last 10 years of available data), comparative analysis of major macroeconomic indicators and impact on firm’s economic activity

30%

Analysis of monetary, fiscal and foreign trade policy instruments for the two countries and their impact on firm’s economic activity

40%

Report structure, presentation and references

10%

[1] We recommend that you use the IMF database to collect your data for most of these macroeconomic indicators, but other trusted sources can be accessed, such as Trading Economics.

[2] ibid