Healthy growth, lower taxes in 2018 – GG Williams

The Antigua and Barbuda government is forecasting an economic bounce back this year following September’s hurricane devastation which has left the country with a reconstruction bill amounting to more than U.S. $200 million.
Governor-General Sir Rodney Williams, as head of state, delivered this year’s Throne Speech in parliament on Thursday, reiterating many of the statements made by other government officials over the preceding months.
On the economic front, Sir Rodney said the forecast is for “healthy growth, record levels of employment, and the continued lowering of taxes.” This, he added, despite Hurricane Irma’s impact on the country’s revenue collection.
Still on revenues, the governor-general stated that earnings from the Citizenship by Investment Programme are returning to “acceptable levels” after a run of poor showing led to the government reducing the National Development Fund contribution by 50 percent to make it competitive with those in other jurisdictions.
Highlights from the speech included the announcement that the Public Prosecutions Service is to be inaugurated this year. The necessary legislative moves were made last year to transfer the responsibility for all prosecutions to the Director of Public Prosecutions, thereby doing away with police prosecution.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)