External Public Debt

External Public Debt is the outstanding stock of public debt contracted by the government with non-resident creditors, including external loans, bonds and other financial obligations held by foreign entities. It is a key gauge of a government's reliance on external financing and its exposure to international financial conditions across Latin America and the Caribbean. Where available, the series is reported across government levels — central government, general government and the non-financial public sector. This indicator is published in the Latin Macro Watch dataset by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Coverage

Data cover 22 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency, spanning 1990 to 2026. Values are available in millions of USD, as a percentage of GDP, as a percentage of total external debt, year-to-date and on a fiscal-year (Q4–Q3) aggregation — each in period-average and end-of-period variants — with moving-average (MA3, MA6, MA12) and growth-rate (MoM %, QoQ %, YoY %) transformations.

Sources

Figures are compiled by the IDB from national authorities, including Tesouro Nacional do Brasil, Ministerio de Hacienda de Mexico, Ministerio de Economía de Argentina, Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público de Colombia and Ministerio de Economía de Chile, 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 External Public Debt measure? It measures the outstanding stock of public debt the government owes to non-resident creditors, including external loans, bonds and other obligations held by foreign entities. It reflects reliance on external financing and exposure to international financial conditions. Which government levels are covered? Where available, the indicator is reported for the central government, the general government and the non-financial public sector, so coverage of public-sector perimeters can vary by country. How many countries and which time period are covered? The indicator covers 22 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, spanning 1990 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, as a percentage of total external debt, year-to-date and on a fiscal-year (Q4–Q3) aggregation, each in period-average and end-of-period variants, 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 finance ministries and authorities, such as Tesouro Nacional do Brasil, Ministerio de Hacienda de Mexico, Ministerio de Economía de Argentina and Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público de Colombia. What is this indicator typically used for? It is used in debt-sustainability analysis, sovereign-risk assessment and fiscal monitoring, helping economists and policymakers gauge external vulnerability across Latin American and Caribbean economies. How do I cite this indicator? Cite it as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "External Public Debt." data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.