Long-term External Debt

Long-term external debt is the stock of outstanding debt owed by a country's residents — both public and private sectors — to non-residents with an original maturity of more than one year. It includes loans, bonds and other financial liabilities denominated in foreign or domestic currency when the creditors are abroad, and it reflects an economy's medium- and long-term external financing commitments and its exposure to foreign financial risks. The exact definition may vary by country. This Latin Macro Watch indicator, published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on data.iadb.org, assembles comparable long-term external debt series for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Coverage

The indicator covers 14 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency over the period 1990–2026. Values are available in millions of USD and as a share of GDP, total exports, total imports and total external debt, with end-of-period and average-of-period variants, plus a fiscal-year (Q4–Q3) aggregation. Transformations include moving averages (MA3, MA6, MA12) and month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year percentage changes.

Sources

Figures are compiled from national central banks and statistical agencies, including the Banco Central do Brasil, INDEC - Argentina, the Banco de la República de Colombia, the Banco de Mexico (Banxico) and INEC - Panamá, among others. IDB harmonizes these national sources for cross-country comparison.

Show more

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 Long-term External Debt measure? It measures the stock of outstanding debt owed by a country's public and private residents to non-residents with an original maturity of more than one year, including loans, bonds and other financial liabilities held abroad. How many countries and which frequencies and period are covered? The indicator covers 14 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency, spanning 1990–2026. What units and transformations are available? Values are available in millions of USD and as a share of GDP, total exports, total imports and total external debt, with end-of-period and average-of-period variants and a fiscal-year (Q4–Q3) aggregation. Transformations include MA3, MA6, MA12 moving averages and month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year percentage changes. Where does the data come from? Data are compiled from national central banks and statistical agencies, including the Banco Central do Brasil, INDEC - Argentina, the Banco de la República de Colombia, the Banco de Mexico (Banxico) and INEC - Panamá, then harmonized by the IDB. What is this indicator typically used for? It is used to assess an economy's external financing commitments, debt sustainability and exposure to foreign financial risks, and to compare external indebtedness across Latin American and Caribbean economies. How do I cite this indicator? Cite it as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Long-term External Debt". data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.