Gross International Reserves

Gross international reserves are the total stock of external assets held by a country's monetary authority, including foreign currency holdings, gold, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and other reserve assets. They represent the full amount available on the balance sheet without considering any external liabilities. This Latin Macro Watch indicator from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), on data.iadb.org, lets researchers, policymakers and journalists monitor reserve adequacy across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Coverage

Gross international reserves are available for 21 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency, covering 1990–2026. Values can be expressed in millions of USD and as ratios — for example, as a percentage of GDP, of M2, of short-term external public debt, of total exports or imports, and in months of total imports — with period-average and end-of-period variants. Moving averages (MA3, MA6, MA12) and month-on-month, quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year (MoM %, QoQ %, YoY %) transformations are also provided. Reserves correspond to reserve assets from the international investment position.

Sources

The series draws on central banks and statistical agencies across the region, including Banco Central do Brasil, Banco Central de la República Argentina, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), Banco Central de Chile and Bank of Jamaica.

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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 are gross international reserves? They are the total stock of external assets held by a country's monetary authority, including foreign currency, gold, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and other reserve assets, measured without netting out external liabilities. How many countries and time periods are covered? The indicator covers 21 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency, spanning 1990 to 2026. What units and ratios are available? Reserves are available in millions of USD and as ratios such as percent of GDP, of M2, of short-term external public debt, of total exports or imports, and in months of total imports, with period-average and end-of-period variants plus MA3, MA6, MA12 moving averages and MoM %, QoQ %, YoY % transformations. Why do gross international reserves matter? They are a core gauge of external liquidity and resilience: ratios such as reserves in months of imports or relative to short-term external debt help assess a country's ability to meet external obligations and absorb shocks. Where does the data come from? The series draws on central banks and statistical agencies across the region, including Banco Central do Brasil, Banco Central de la República Argentina, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), Banco Central de Chile and Bank of Jamaica. How do I cite this indicator? Cite as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Gross International Reserves". data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.