Exports of Services (BOP)

Exports of Services (Balance of Payments) measure the value of services provided by residents to non-residents — such as travel, transport, financial and professional services — recorded when the service is rendered or ownership changes. Unlike merchandise trade, these cross-border transactions do not require the physical movement of goods, yet they are a growing source of foreign exchange across Latin America and the Caribbean. As a current-account component of the balance of payments, the indicator helps gauge the competitiveness of service sectors such as tourism. It is published in the Latin Macro Watch dataset by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Coverage

Data cover 23 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency, spanning 1991 to 2026. Values are available in millions of USD, as a percentage of GDP, as a percentage of total exports and of total imports, year-to-date (YTD) and seasonally adjusted, with moving-average (MA3, MA6, MA12) and growth-rate (MoM %, QoQ %, YoY %) transformations.

Sources

Figures are compiled by the IDB from national authorities, including Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), Banco Central de Chile, Banco de la República de Colombia and INDEC - Argentina, among others.

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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 Exports of Services (BOP) measure? It measures the value of services residents provide to non-residents — such as travel, transport, financial and professional services — recorded when the service is rendered. These cross-border transactions do not require the physical movement of goods and form part of the current account of the balance of payments. How many countries and which time period are covered? The indicator covers 23 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, spanning 1991 to 2026 at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency. What units and transformations are available? Values are provided in millions of USD, as a percentage of GDP, of total exports and of total imports, year-to-date and seasonally adjusted, with moving averages (MA3, MA6, MA12) and growth rates (MoM %, QoQ %, YoY %). Where does the data come from? The IDB compiles the series from national authorities, such as Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), Banco Central de Chile, Banco de la República de Colombia and INDEC - Argentina. What is this indicator typically used for? It is used to track service-sector competitiveness — including tourism, transport and business services — and its contribution to the current account, and to compare service-export performance across Latin American and Caribbean economies. How do I cite this indicator? Cite it as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Exports of Services (BOP)." data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.