Current Fiscal Expenditures

Current Fiscal Expenditures track central government spending on the day-to-day functioning of government in Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding capital investment. The series covers wages and salaries, pensions, subsidies, transfers, and purchases of goods and services, reflecting the ongoing cost of public services. It is part of the Latin Macro Watch (LMW) dataset published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on data.iadb.org, where figures are reported across government levels (central government, general government, and the non-financial public sector, where available).

Coverage

Data are available for 8 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly, and quarterly frequency, covering 1990 to 2026. Values can be viewed in millions of domestic currency, millions of USD, as a share of GDP, year-to-date, constant prices (CPI-deflated), seasonally adjusted, and on a fiscal-year (Q4–Q3) basis, with derived transformations including MoM %, QoQ %, YoY %, and 3-, 6-, and 12-month moving averages (MA3, MA6, MA12).

Sources

Figures are compiled from official national authorities, including the Ministerio de Economía de Argentina, Tesouro Nacional do Brasil, Ministerio de Hacienda de Mexico, Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas de Perú, and the Central Bank of The Bahamas, 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 Current Fiscal Expenditures indicator measure? It measures central government spending on the day-to-day functioning of government, excluding capital investment. This includes wages and salaries, pensions, subsidies, transfers, and purchases of goods and services. How many countries and which frequencies and period are covered? The indicator covers 8 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly, and quarterly frequency, spanning 1990 to 2026. What units and transformations are available? Values are available in millions of domestic currency, millions of USD, as a share of GDP, year-to-date, constant prices (CPI-deflated), seasonally adjusted, and on a fiscal-year basis, with MoM %, QoQ %, YoY %, and MA3/MA6/MA12 moving averages. Where does the data come from? Data are compiled from official national authorities such as the Ministerio de Economía de Argentina, Tesouro Nacional do Brasil, Ministerio de Hacienda de Mexico, Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas de Perú, and the Central Bank of The Bahamas, then harmonized by the IDB. At which government levels is the data reported? Figures are reported across government levels — central government, general government, and the non-financial public sector — where available, allowing comparison of the spending perimeter used by each country. What are typical uses of this indicator? Researchers, policymakers, and analysts use it to assess fiscal sustainability, the structure of public spending, and the cost of running government, and to compare current expenditure trends across Latin American and Caribbean economies. How do I cite this indicator? Cite as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Current Fiscal Expenditures". data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.