Total External Assets

Total External Assets measures the stock of financial assets that residents of a country hold against nonresidents, including direct investment abroad, portfolio investment, other investment and reserve assets. It offers a comprehensive measure of the external claims of the domestic economy. Published in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Latin Macro Watch (LMW), this indicator helps researchers, policymakers and analysts assess external positions and financial integration across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Coverage

Total External Assets is available for 14 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency, spanning 1995 to 2025. Values can be expressed as a share of GDP or in millions of USD, in level, end-of-period and period-average variants. Transformations include month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth rates (MoM %, QoQ %, YoY %).

Sources

The series is compiled from national central banks and statistical agencies, including Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), Banco de la República de Colombia, INDEC - Argentina and Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) de Chile, alongside the Consejo Monetario Centroamericano for Central American economies.

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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 Total External Assets measure? It measures the stock of financial assets that residents hold against nonresidents, including direct investment abroad, portfolio investment, other investment and reserve assets. How many countries and which time period are covered? The indicator covers 14 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean from 1995 to 2025, at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency. What units and transformations are available? Values are available as a share of GDP or in millions of USD, in level, end-of-period and period-average variants, with MoM %, QoQ % and YoY % growth rates. Where does the data come from? The data is compiled from national central banks and statistical agencies, including Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), INDEC - Argentina and Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) de Chile. What are typical uses of this indicator? It is used to analyse a country's external position, net foreign asset dynamics, financial integration and exposure to global capital markets, often alongside total external liabilities. How do I cite this indicator? Cite it as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Total External Assets". data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.