- In 2019, public debt in Latin America represented 68.9% of its GDP;
- Public debt increased due to the fiscal deficit of the countries;
- Brazil reached the highest level of public debt in Latin America.
The COVID-19 pandemic’s burden to Latin America is a financial impact that led the governments to raise their public debt to finance the social and economic needs of its people, which made Latin America’s public debt grow more than ten percentage points since 2019 (from 68.9% to 79.3%), according to estimates from the IMF (International Monetary Fund).
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Brazil and Argentina are the countries with the highest level of indebtedness according to a survey carried out by EAE Business School in Latam, reported La República.
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Brazil’s debt exceeded 100% of its GDP. In Argentina, debt is close to 97% of its GDP, while Colombia is 61.4%, Ecuador 65.3% and Mexico reaches 52.4% of its GDP. As reported by the Colombian media outlet, all of them had levels slightly above 50% before the pandemic.
