Assignment 1 - Case Course Code: ECON1193B

Course Name: Business Statistics 1

Study analysis
Lecturer: Nguyen Thanh Liem
Campus: SGS
Student Name: Mai Hoang Ha Vi
Student ID: s3877534
Assigned countries: Greece and Honduras
Word count: 1558

Table of Contents
1. Economy overview.............................................................................................................................2
2. Descriptive analysis...........................................................................................................................2
a. Line graph........................................................................................................................................2
 b. Central Tendency.............................................................................................................................3
c. Variation..........................................................................................................................................4
d. Histograms.......................................................................................................................................4
e. Box-and-whisker plot......................................................................................................................5
3. Discussion: Which country has experienced higher economic growth?........................................6
4. Case study..........................................................................................................................................7
5. Two other factors can impact the economic growth of Greece and Honduras.............................7
6. References..........................................................................................................................................7
7. Appendix............................................................................................................................................9

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 1. Economy overview
As a developed country in Europe and Central Asia, Greece relies on tourism (providing 18% of
GDP) and merchant shipping (The World Factbook 2021). Historically, Greece welcomed the
21st century with skyrocketed GDP (Statista 2021) thanks to high investor confidence and
international capital (Marketline Limited 2021). However, till 2008, Greece has suffered from a
horrific economic crisis, often referred to as the Greek debt crisis (Gibbs 2015). The event made
its GDP continuously drop from its peak - 355 billion US dollars in 2008 to half in 2016
(appendix 1). Consequently, its unemployment rate reached an unprecedented level at 25.4% in
2012 (Marketline Limited 2021). However, later, by implementing structural reforms, Greece’s
economy has gradually rebuilt confidence for 3 years before the hit of Covid-19 in 2020 (OECD
2020). In contrast to Greece, Honduras is a developing country in North America, whose major
industry is agriculture (providing 12.12% GDP in 2020) (GlobalEDGE 2021). From 2001-2008,
its GDP growth averaged at 5.04%, and during the following years, its growth has slowed down
due to rising oil prices and political crisis (Marketline Limited 2021), though still maintaining a
continuous upward GDP trend (Statista 2021).
However, Honduras still has a significantly lower GDP than Greece (Statista 2021). According
to The World Bank (2021), 48.3% of the population is living under the poverty line with less
than $5.50 per day and the unemployment rate was as high as 40% in 2018. Besides, Honduras is
still facing formidable challenges for decades: severe violence and endemic corruption, making it
among the deadliest places in the world (Phylipp 2020). Due to the hit of the pandemic, both
economies are heavily affected. Greece’s production and tourism demand significantly dropped
(OECD 2020), and according to Thomsen, Greece still has a long way to go for incomes to catch
up with pre-crisis levels (2019). The horrible pandemic and two successive hurricanes in 2020
made it extremely challenging for its economic recovery and threatened the health and welfare of
the Hondurans (The World Bank 2021).

2. Descriptive analysis
a. Line graph

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 GDP per capita growth rate (annual %)
from 1971 to 2020
15.000

10.000

5.000

0.000
71 74 77 80 83 86 89 92 95 98 01 04 07 10 13 16 19
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
-5.000

-10.000

-15.000

Greece Honduras

Figure 1: Line chart for the GDP per capita growth rate of Greece and Honduras
The line chart indicates the GDP per capita growth rate during 50 years for Greece and
Honduras. Overall, both countries had obvious fluctuations throughout the years, indicating their
unstable economies. During 1983-2007 (the middle period), Honduras fluctuated more rapidly,
whereas Greece witnessed a higher and more stable growth rate. However, in difficult economic
periods starting from 1973 or 2007, both countries had considerably declined growth rates, in
which Greece tended to go deeper and take longer to recover from, even reaching its trough at
-10% in 2011. With the hit of the pandemic in 2019, both rates dropped at unprecedented levels,
especially Honduras at -10% in 2020, the worst record in its history.
b. Central Tendency

Greece >, <, = Honduras

Mean 1.056 > 0.916

Median 1.617 < 1.890

Mode None None

Table 1: Table of comparison with all measures of Central Tendency of the GDP per capita
growth rates of Greece and Honduras

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As shown in table 1, there is no mode found in two countries as their GDP per capita growth
rates are not repetitive throughout the years. The second method is mean, which indicates the
average figures of all values, meaning it also includes extreme values that can make the final
results biased. In this data set, outliers appear in both countries (table 2), therefore, mean is not
suitable. The best option for analysing the central tendency in this case is the median. Greece’s
and Honduras’s median growth rates are respectively at 1.62% and 1.89%, meaning that both
countries have half of the rates higher and half smaller than those center positions.
c. Variation

Greece >, <, = Honduras

Range 19.463 > 17.595

Interquartile Range (IQR) 4.757 > 4.068

Sample Variance 16.351 > 11.278

Standard Deviation 4.044 > 3.358

Coefficient of Variance (%) 382.786 > 366.293

Table 3: Table of comparison with all measures of Variation of Greece and Honduras
Range is the simplest measure for variation, though it depends mainly on extreme values on the
data set, which means it is sensitive to outliers. Sharing the same characteristics with it, Sample
Variance and Standard Deviation both include outliers and the mean in its formulas, meaning it
should not be used with data sets having extreme figures like this. Coefficient of Variance can
eliminate the misunderstandings in case there are different units or severe differences in absolute
variations. However, the data set has the same unit (annual %) and CoV also contains outliers,
which will not be used. Hence, Interquartile Range is the most suitable option. As shown in table
3, Greece’s IQR is higher than that of Honduras (4.757 > 4.068). This shows that the GDP per
capita growth rate of Greece is more spread out and varies greatly from the median compared to
Honduras’s, indicating the inconsistency of its values.
d. Histograms
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Both histograms share similar distribution shapes. In Greece’s case, its peak is slightly on the
right side with the range 1.00% - 4.00%, accounting for 42% of the whole data set. Additionally,
Greece’s histogram has a longer tail to the left, meaning that it is more left-skewed. As for
Honduras, 64% of its distribution is from the 2 right-handed ranges: 0.50%-3.00% - its peak and
3.00%-5.50%, hence, its histogram is also left-skewed. Though both are left-skewed, Honduras’s
distributions are more heavily right-concentrated than Greece’s.
e. Box-and-whisker plot

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As proved in tables 4 and 5, the shape of distributions of both countries is left-skewed.
Moreover, the skewness levels calculated are both negative for Greece and Honduras (-0.65%
and -1.045 respectively) and the means are smaller than the medians in both Greece
(1.056<1.617) and Honduras (0.917<1.890) (table 1), indicating the same results about the
distribution skewness. Observing from two box and whisker plots, visual-wise, Honduras has
similar shapes as Greece yet at a smaller ratio in terms of the lengths of boxes and whiskers. This
indicates that Honduras has a more stable annual GDP per capita growth rate with smaller
volatility than Greece’s. Moreover, the smaller the upper section of the box plot, the more
condensed the higher values (Rumsey 2021). This means Honduras’s higher growth rates are
closer together than those of Greece’s, or Honduras’s box plot is more skewed to the left than
Greece’s.

3. Discussion: Which country has experienced higher economic growth?

By using different methods and graphical representations, it can be concluded that Honduras
witnessed a higher GDP per capita growth rate compared to Greece’s in the past 50 years.
 Central Tendency: Honduras’s median value is bigger than that of Greece, showing better
economic growth, though the difference is small.
 Histogram: Even though both histograms are left-skewed, Honduras has more
concentration of higher values to the right than Greece’s. This shows that Honduras’s
growth rates appear more with bigger values, indicating higher economic growth. 
 Box-and-whisker plot: Honduras's box plot is more left-skewed with more condensed
higher distributions than those of Greece. This indicates the higher performance of
Honduras in terms of maintaining higher economic growth rates. Additionally, the
distinct higher length of Greece’s whisker shows an unstable economy. 

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In conclusion, Greece has a more unstable economy with high fluctuations, though those
fluctuations appear more with smaller values than Honduras. Therefore, Honduras witnessed
higher economic growth than Greece from 1971 to 2020.

4. Case study
Through the descriptive analysis above, it is concluded that Honduras has a higher growth rate
compared to Greece. This is reasonable because Greece has a steep increase followed by the
worst recession that it can hardly recover from (Thomsen 2019). This explains why Greece’s
box-and-whisker plot is longer. On average, Honduras’s continuous slow growth proves a more
stable and higher growth rate. It should be noted that although higher, Honduras’s growth is very
modest, which leads to such close medians found in part 2. Therefore, both tell a consistent story,
in that the introduction draws an overall picture and the descriptive analysis provides more
insightful information (Hayes 2021).

5. Two other factors can impact the economic growth of Greece and
Honduras
Firstly, education has a positive impact on economic growth. It enhances individual
productivity, therefore, creates better employment prospects and increases earnings, which
contribute to the growth and prosperity of the economies (OECD 2012). Greece’s education
system has failed to create such a labor force, which makes it face the future risk of increasing
unemployment (Marketline Limited 2021). Moreover, there is evidence that higher education
quality comes with enhanced social welfare, meaning less violence, poverty, and inequality
(Goczek, Witkowska & Bartosz 2021), which address major problems faced by Honduras for
years. 
 
Secondly, population growth affects other age structure phenomena such as migration, the size
of the labor workforce, or economic inequality, which directly affect or are affected by the
economic growth (Wesley & Peterson 2017). Greece’s old-age dependency was recorded as high
as 34.8% in 2020 (Knoema 2021). This would negatively affect economic growth due to the
reduction of total factor productivity (Huang, Lin & Lee 2019). In contrast, Honduras’s
percentage of age dependency ratio has been decreasing continuously (appendix 3). This could
provide a productive workforce in the long run, though could also be a threat in terms of
reducing the national general well-being in low-income countries, thus negatively affecting its
economy (Wesley & Peterson 2017). 

6. References
Gibbs, A 2015, ‘Greece timeline: It all started in 2001…’, CNBC, viewed 4 November 2021, <
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/24/greece-debt-crisis-timeline-it-all-started-in-2001.html>.
GlobalEDGE 2021, Honduras: Economy, GlobalEDGE, viewed 3 November 2021, <
https://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/honduras/economy>.

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Goczek, L, Witkowska, E & Witkowski, B 2021, ‘How Does Education Quality Affect
Economic Growth?’, MDPI, vol. 13, no. 11, viewed 6 November 2021, <
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability>.
Hayes, A 2021, 'Descriptive Statistics', Investopedia, 24 November, viewed 16 July
2021, <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/descriptive_statistics.asp>.
Huang, WH, Lin YJ & Lee, HF 2019, ‘Impact of Population and Workforce Aging on Economic
Growth: Case Study of Taiwan’, MDPI, vol. 11, no. 22, viewed 4 November 2021, <
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6301>.
Knoema 2021, Greece - Ratio of population aged 65+ per 100 population 15-64 years, Knoema,
viewed 6 November 2021, <
https://knoema.com/atlas/Greece/topics/Demographics/Dependency-Ratios/Old-age-
dependency-ratio-65-per-15-64>.
Marketline Limited 2021, Greece In-depth PESTLE insights, industry profile, Marketline
Limited, viewed 7 November 2021, Marketline database.
Marketline Limited 2021, Honduras In-depth PESTLE insights, industry profile, Marketline
Limited, viewed 7 November 2021, Marketline database.
OECD 2012, Education at a Glance 2012: Highlights, OECD Publishing, Paris.
OECD 2020, OECD Economic Surveys: Greece, industry report, OECD, viewed 5 November
2021, <https://www.oecd.org/economy/surveys/Greece-2020-OECD-economic-survey-
Overview.pdf>.
Phylipp 2020, ‘THE OUTLOOK OF POVERTY IN HONDURAS’, The Borgen Project, 6 July,
viewed 5 November 2021, < https://borgenproject.org/tag/poverty-in-honduras/>.
Rumsey, DJ n.d, ‘What a Boxplot Can Tell You about a Statistical Data Set’, dummies, viewed 6
November 2021, < https://www.dummies.com/education/math/statistics/what-a-boxplot-can-tell-
you-about-a-statistical-data-set/?
fbclid=IwAR0Ej3aKOLBxCSmh7T7OaeJQAGA1gaPES9LHnmrNX_jvCG5p0SV5bUuq85U>.
Statista 2021, ‘Greece: Gross domestic product (GDP) in current prices from 1986 to 2026’,
Statista, viewed 5 November 2021, < https://www.statista.com/statistics/263576/gross-domestic-
product-gdp-in-greece/>.
Statista 2021, ‘Honduras: Gross domestic product (GDP) in current prices from 1986 to 2026’,
Statista, viewed 5 November 2021, < https://www.statista.com/statistics/509933/gross-domestic-
product-gdp-in-honduras/>.
The World Bank 2021, The World Bank In Honduras, The World Bank, viewed 2 November
2021, < https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/honduras/overview#1>.
The World Factbook 2021, Explore All Countries: Honduras, The World Factbook, viewed 4
November 2021, < https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/honduras/>.

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Thomsen, PM 2019, ‘The IMF and the Greek Crisis: Myths and Realities’, IMF, 30 September,
viewed 5 November 2021, < https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2019/10/01/sp093019-The-
IMF-and-the-Greek-Crisis-Myths-and-Realities>.
Wesley, E & Peterson, F 2017, ‘The Role of Population in Economic Growth’, SAGE Journals.

7. Appendix
1. Appendix 1: Greece’s GDP from 1986 to 2026.

2. Appendix 2: Honduras’s GDP from 1986 to 2026

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3. Appendix 3: Honduras’s age dependency ratio has been decreasing continuously from
1998.

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