FinObservatory

External balance sheets

Argentina

In 2024, Argentina had a net international investment position of 8.0% of GDP, owning 70.7% abroad and owing 62.7%. Of what it owes, 49.9% is equity-like (direct investment and portfolio equity) and the rest is debt.

The balance sheet through time

YearNet positionAssetsLiabilitiesReservesCurrent accountCrisis
1970-17.9%4.7%22.5%1.6%-0.5%currency
1975-10.6%5.9%16.6%0.5%-2.2%currency
1980-4.4%9.2%13.6%3.0%-2.1%banking
1985-28.9%27.0%55.9%3.4%-1.0%banking, sovereign debt
1990-7.9%36.6%44.6%3.0%3.0%banking, sovereign debt
1995-12.2%37.8%50.0%5.1%-1.8%banking, currency
2000-19.1%52.8%71.9%8.2%-2.9%banking, currency
20057.7%87.8%80.2%13.6%2.6%currency, sovereign debt
20108.3%55.6%47.3%11.7%-0.4%sovereign debt
20158.4%42.0%33.6%3.6%-2.7%sovereign debt
202030.9%102.9%71.9%9.3%0.7%
20248.0%70.7%62.7%3.8%0.9%

Source: External Wealth of Nations (Lane & Milesi-Ferretti), 1970-2024 All figures as a share of GDP. Every fifth year shown, plus the first and last. Crisis column is the FinObservatory atlas, deduplicated across its five chronologies. Methodology

What it owes, and in what form

The composition of external liabilities. Direct investment and portfolio equity are equity-like: their value falls when the country does badly, so the foreign investor shares the loss. Portfolio debt and other investment (mostly cross-border bank lending) are fixed claims that do not.

YearDirect investmentPortfolio equityPortfolio debtOther investment
1991first15.3%1.6%9.2%73.8%
2024latest44.9%5.0%15.0%35.1%

Source: External Wealth of Nations (Lane & Milesi-Ferretti), 1970-2024 Share of total external liabilities. First and latest year with a complete instrument split (34 years available). Methodology

Reading this page

The atlas records 68 distinct crisis episodes for Argentina since 1970. The crisis column marks them beside the balance sheet, and it is deliberately left to the reader to look. This page does not narrate a causal story about deteriorating positions and subsequent crises, because for most countries no such story survives inspection, and the cross-country table on the index shows why.

EWN is a reconstruction. Where a country never reported a position, the authors estimate it, and the file carries no flag separating a reported cell from an estimated one, so this page cannot mark them either.

Methodology