According to commit4fitness, Antigua and Barbuda is a twin-island nation located in the Caribbean Sea with a population of around 97,000 people. The economy of Antigua and Barbuda is largely based on tourism, accounting for around 60% of its GDP. The country also has an agricultural sector which employs nearly half of the labor force. In addition to these industries, Antigua and Barbuda has recently become an important hub for international trade and transit services due to its strategic location in the Caribbean Sea. Manufacturing is also growing due to foreign investment, with textiles, carpets, electronics and pharmaceuticals being some of the key industries driving growth. The country also has significant potential in terms of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power which could be developed in the future.
According to abbreviationfinder, AG is the 2 letter abbreviation for the country of Antigua and Barbuda.
Business
Antigua and Barbuda’s traditional industries, cotton and sugar processing, have now been replaced by tourism as a leading industry. During the 1990s, the country was hit by several hurricanes, which temporarily halted growth in the tourism sector. Antigua and Barbuda are visited annually by about 300,000 overnight tourists and about 700,000 cruise tourists. The tourism industry contributes about 80 percent of GDP and employs 35 percent of the workforce. Some importance to the economy also has easy manufacturing industry, fishing and livestock management. Dependence on the United States is strong, and one of the state’s most important sources of income is the rent that the United States pays for its two military bases.
According to countryaah, the capital of Saint John’s is the dominant port city and also has an international airport.
POPULATION AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
Independent since 1981, this small Central American state, made up of the two islands of Antigua and Barbuda and the tiny, uninhabited island of Redonda, has a predominantly black and English-speaking population of 67. 000 residents (1998 estimate), concentrated on the largest island, Antigua (280 km ²). The density is very high: it reaches, in fact, 152 residents / km ², which rises to 230 if Antigua alone is considered. At a 1995 assessment, the capital, Saint John’s, had 30,000 residents.
The main economic resources are represented by agriculture, fishing (especially lobsters) and tourism; furthermore, agricultural products (cotton, vegetables and sugar cane) feed small local food and textile industries. Like most of the Caribbean islands, Antigua and Barbuda annually attract an ever-increasing number of visitors, now around half a million (without taking into account the tourists who use their own boat), coming in particular from the United Kingdom (38 % in 1995), the United States (35 %) and Canada. In the first half of the 1990s the sector contributed, directly or indirectly, 70 % to the formation of GDP, employing about 35% of the workforce.
Another large contribution to the state’s revenue is the annual rent paid by the US government for the two military bases located on Antigua and Barbuda, as well as corporate tax; moreover, to create alternative sources of currency to those represented by tourism, the government has created favorable fiscal conditions for the growth of offshore financial activities . However, the organizational problems deriving from independence, the scarcity of internal resources and unexpected weather adversities (most recently, Hurricane Luis, which struck the islands in September 1995) make it difficult for the country to take off, afflicted, among other things, by a high degree of unemployment and a substantial trade balance deficit, which is affected by significant imports of consumer goods only partially offset by income from tourism . Antigua and Barbuda while seeking, in recent years, an ever closer economic integration with the other CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market) countries, maintain the traditional and privileged commercial relations with the United States and the United Kingdom.