External debt — all countries

External debt — South America

External debt in South America in 2023 — 1,261,913,353,035 US$. Since 2015, the indicator has risen by 31.2%.

2023 1.26T US$ +4.07% vs 2022
World rank
Period maximum 1.26T US$2023
Period minimum 962B US$2015

Trend over time

2015–2023 · US$

External debt — South America, 2015–2023900B1T1.1T1.2T1.3T2015201620172018201920202021202220232015: 961,646,691,621 US$2016: 984,285,782,873 US$2017: 1,039,350,869,334 US$2018: 1,118,316,426,705 US$2019: 1,142,947,890,053 US$2020: 1,133,978,853,839 US$2021: 1,181,362,602,165 US$2022: 1,212,537,905,790 US$2023: 1,261,913,353,035 US$
Change over the period: +300B (+31.22%) Average annual rate: 3.46 %
External debt — South America, by year South America All countries CSV XLSX
Year US$ Change Change, %
2023 1.26T +49.38B +4.07%
2022 1.21T +31.18B +2.64%
2021 1.18T +47.38B +4.18%
2020 1.13T −8.97B −0.78%
2019 1.14T +24.63B +2.2%
2018 1.12T +78.97B +7.6%
2017 1.04T +55.07B +5.59%
2016 984B +22.64B +2.35%
2015 962B

About the indicator

Total external debt: the liabilities of a country's residents to non-residents in foreign and in national currency, covering public, publicly guaranteed and private debt. It differs from government debt fundamentally — it includes the borrowing of banks and corporations that the government does not guarantee but that turns out to be its problem in a crisis all the same.

Important: Only middle- and low-income countries report to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System, so the table holds about 130 of them. Aggregates for country groups are not computed: the sum over those present is the debt of developing countries, not of the world.

Source: World Development Indicators (World Bank), license CC BY 4.0.