Finance Officials Attend IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings

St John’s Antigua, April 20, 2010. Minister of Finance, the Economy and Public Administration, Honourable Harold Lovell heads Antigua and Barbuda’s delegation to the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington DC on April 24 and 25.

While in the US Capital, the local delegation will hold a series of meetings on Antigua and Barbuda’s application for an IMF Stand-By Arrangement and the country’s efforts at improving debt management by implementing a comprehensive debt strategy.

These include meetings with the IMF’s deputy managing director, and with the executive directors for Ireland, Canada and the Caribbean; Switzerland; Germany; and the US.

The team is also expected to meet with representatives of the Paris Club group of creditors, and the World Bank’s country director for the Caribbean.

The overall objective of the meetings is to generate a greater understanding of Antigua and Barbuda's economic situation and how the global financial and economic crises have affected the country.

The other members of the delegation are Financial Secretary Whitfield Harris Jr., deputy financial secretaries Kevin Silston and Rasona Davis, and Debt Manager, Nadia Spencer Henry.