Antigua - Latest Loan Default

Once again, Antigua is hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Following the collapse of the Stanford Empire, a desperate plea for help to the IMF, and the more recent implosion of the Antigua Barbuda Investment Bank, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda has now had to return once again, cap in hand, to one of the most powerful and quietly influential nations on Earth.

To save its blushes, Chinese officials have benevolently agreed that Antigua & Barbuda can delay payment of several major outstanding loans granted in between 1988 and 1992.

Ironically, these loans were interest free, but even then Antigua could not muster a single Yuan in capital repayment.

Of course, the word "default" has been expertly manicured to become "re-scheduling".