Sovereign Debt in the Americas: New Data and Stylized Facts

In this paper, we introduce the first comprehensive database on sovereign debt systematically compiled to ensure comparability, for all countries in the Americas, and use this new data to highlight the main stylized facts regarding sovereign debt for developing America in the last two decades. We find that debt ratios in developing America are comparable to those in developed countries and have remained stable since the late nineties. By contrast, the composition of debt in the region has changed significantly, shifting from foreign currency external to local currency domestic debt. This “onshoring” and “ dedollarization” of sovereign debt, contrary to conventional wisdom, has not come at the expense of a shortening of maturities. Furthermore, we find that “onshoring” is correlated with the level economic development and country size, and with the presence of institutional investors.