📊 Government Debt & Taxes

Exploring the dynamics of fiscal policy in LatAm's top economies.

Welcome to Latinometrics. We bring you Latin American insights and trends through concise, thought-provoking data visualizations.

Government Debt 🏛️

Every once in a while, you may come across a conversation about national debt which, similarly to personal debt, deals with how much money a country owes to a creditor. In the context of Latin America…well, you probably are thinking of a country already.

Argentina famously owes the International Monetary Fund roughly $45B, a staggering debt it incurred with the aim of stabilizing its economy—something which two years later has not occurred.

However, Argentina is not the most indebted country in Latin America today.

Brazil's Government is the Most Heavily Indebted in LatAm

For that, you need to look to Brazil, which has a government debt of roughly 85% of gross domestic product (GDP) as of late last year. By both gross debt and debt ratio, Brazil is Latin America’s leader.

This may well surprise you. Brazil? The country which defied all macroeconomic expectations and saw over 3% economic growth last year, in the process rejoining the top 10 world economies? How could this be?