ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA TO BENEFIT FROM CDB FUNDING

Antigua and Barbuda is to benefit from loan funding from the Caribbean Development Bank as it faces an economic downturn caused by COVID-19.

The Bank’s Board of Directors has approved a total of US$66.7 million of which Antigua and Barbuda will receive 13 million US dollars or just over 35 million EC.

The twin-island state is among 7 regional countries to benefit from these emergency loans.

The others are Belize (US$15 million), Dominica (US$2.5 million), Grenada (US$5.9 million), Saint Lucia (US$10.8 million), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (US$11.3 million), and Suriname (US$8.2 million).

The Bank says the emergency loans, made under its most concessional terms, will provide vital liquidity.

It will also increase governments’ fiscal space to allow these countries to promptly meet their urgent financing needs without diverting resources away from critical social expenditures or health emergency needs.