Macroeconomics and Credit Ratings

Many companies supply goods, loans, and services based on business and trade credit, either invoicing customers for payment at a later date or providing B2B loans. Business credit risk management assists companies with lending decisions based on a client's financial health as well as other parameters that may indicate how likely they are to pay on time. Providing the right amount of credit will reduce the risk of late payments or defaults, which expose the vendor to financial risk.

Credit scoring is a statistical analysis performed by lenders and financial institutions to assess a person's creditworthiness for mortgages, credit cards, and private loans. Credit scoring is used by lenders to decide whether to extend or deny credit. Traditionally, a person's credit score determined by credit bureaus is a number between 300 and 850 with 850 being the highest credit rating possible. As new types of lenders and insurers emerge, however, the traditional credit score becomes just one parameter joined with a large variety of alternative data that helps determine a person's creditworthiness. 

The process of economic forecasting is at heart the process of attempting to predict the future of an economy. Generally this refers to the economy of a country, but it may also refer to municipalities within a state.