Errors and Omissions

Errors and Omissions is a balancing item in the balance of payments that accounts for discrepancies arising from measurement or timing errors in recorded transactions. It ensures that the sum of the current account and the capital and financial account equals the change in reserves, maintaining consistency in the overall balance of payments. This indicator is part of the Latin Macro Watch (LMW) dataset published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on data.iadb.org, supporting external-sector analysis across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Coverage

Data are available for 24 countries at annual, monthly, and quarterly frequency, covering the period 1990–2026. Values are reported as a percentage of GDP, in millions of USD, and on a year-to-date (YTD) basis, and can be viewed with moving-average (MA3, MA6, MA12) and growth-rate (MoM %, QoQ %, YoY %) transformations.

Sources

Figures are compiled from official central banks and statistical agencies, including Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), Banco Central de Chile, Banco de la República de Colombia, and INDEC - Argentina, among others across the region.

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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 this indicator measure? Errors and Omissions is a balancing item in the balance of payments that captures discrepancies from measurement or timing errors, ensuring the current account plus the capital and financial account equals the change in reserves. How many countries and which frequencies and period are covered? The indicator covers 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly, and quarterly frequency, spanning 1990 to 2026. What units and transformations are available? Values are available as a percentage of GDP, in millions of USD, and on a year-to-date (YTD) basis. Moving averages (MA3, MA6, MA12) and growth rates (MoM %, QoQ %, YoY %) are also available. Where does the data come from? Data are compiled from official central banks and statistical agencies such as Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), Banco Central de Chile, and Banco de la República de Colombia. What are typical uses of this indicator? It is used to assess the quality and internal consistency of balance-of-payments statistics and to study external-sector measurement gaps across countries. How do I cite this indicator? Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Errors and Omissions". data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.