Public External Debt

Public external debt is the stock of outstanding debt owed by the public sector of a country to nonresidents. It includes the obligations of entities such as the central government, local governments, and public enterprises, taking the form of loans, bonds, or other financial liabilities held by creditors abroad. The indicator reflects the public sector's external borrowing and its exposure to foreign financial risks; definitions may vary by country. It is part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Latin Macro Watch for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Coverage

Public external debt is available for 11 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly, and quarterly frequency, covering 1990 to 2026. Values are provided in millions of USD, as a share of GDP (% of GDP), as a percentage of total exports, total imports, and total external debt, and on a fiscal-year (Q4–Q3 aggregation) basis, with average-of-period and end-of-period variants. Transformations include moving averages (MA3, MA6, MA12) and month-over-month (MoM %), quarter-over-quarter (QoQ %), and year-over-year (YoY %) changes.

Sources

Data are compiled from central banks and statistics agencies, including Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de la República de Colombia, Banco Central de Chile, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), and INDEC - Argentina. The Latin Macro Watch standardizes these national external-debt statistics so analysts and policymakers can compare external borrowing across the region on data.iadb.org.

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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 Public External Debt measure? It measures the stock of outstanding debt owed by a country's public sector to nonresidents, including obligations of the central government, local governments, and public enterprises. It reflects external borrowing and exposure to foreign financial risks. How many countries and which frequencies and periods are covered? Public external debt is available for 11 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly, and quarterly frequency, covering 1990 to 2026. What units and transformations are available? Values are available in millions of USD, as a share of GDP, as a percentage of total exports, total imports, and total external debt, and on a fiscal-year (Q4–Q3) basis, with average-of-period and end-of-period variants. Transformations include MA3, MA6, MA12 moving averages and MoM %, QoQ %, and YoY % changes. Where does the data come from? Data are compiled from central banks and statistics agencies, including Banco Central do Brasil, Banco de la República de Colombia, Banco Central de Chile, Banco de Mexico (Banxico), and INDEC - Argentina, then standardized by the IDB Latin Macro Watch. What are typical uses of this indicator? Analysts use it to assess external vulnerability and debt sustainability, benchmark external debt against exports and GDP, and compare public-sector external borrowing across Latin American and Caribbean economies. How do I cite this indicator? Cite it as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Public External Debt". data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.