Direct Investment Assets

Direct Investment Assets are the stock of cross-border investments in which residents of a country hold a lasting interest and a significant degree of influence in enterprises abroad, usually defined as ownership of 10 percent or more of voting power. They form part of a country's external assets, and the exact definition may vary by country. This external-sector indicator is part of the Latin Macro Watch (LMW) dataset published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on data.iadb.org, supporting balance-of-payments and international-investment-position analysis across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Coverage

Data are available for 11 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly, and quarterly frequency, covering 2002 to 2025. Values can be viewed in millions of USD and as a share of GDP — each available end-of-period and average-of-period — with derived transformations including MoM %, QoQ %, and YoY %.

Sources

Figures are compiled from official national authorities, including the Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), INDEC - Argentina, the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) de Chile, and the Consejo Monetario Centroamericano, then harmonized by the IDB for cross-country comparability.

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Format	CSV
Language	en
Country	Argentina Bahamas Trinidad & Tobago Belize Costa Rica Dominican Republic Ecuador Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia El Salvador Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Panama Uruguay Venezuela Barbados Paraguay Peru Suriname
Data notes	What does the Direct Investment Assets indicator measure? It measures the stock of cross-border investments in which residents hold a lasting interest and significant influence in enterprises abroad, usually 10 percent or more of voting power. These holdings form part of a country's external assets. How many countries and which frequencies and period are covered? The indicator covers 11 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly, and quarterly frequency, spanning 2002 to 2025. What units and transformations are available? Values are available in millions of USD and as a share of GDP, each end-of-period and average-of-period, with MoM %, QoQ %, and YoY % transformations. Where does the data come from? Data are compiled from official national authorities such as the Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), INDEC - Argentina, the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) de Chile, and the Consejo Monetario Centroamericano, then harmonized by the IDB. How do Direct Investment Assets differ from Direct Investment Liabilities? Direct Investment Assets capture residents' lasting investments in enterprises abroad (outward direct investment), whereas Direct Investment Liabilities capture nonresidents' lasting investments in domestic enterprises (inward direct investment). What are typical uses of this indicator? Researchers and analysts use it to study international investment positions, cross-border capital flows, and the external assets of Latin American and Caribbean economies, and to compare outward direct investment across countries. How do I cite this indicator? Cite as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Direct Investment Assets". data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.