The country's official currency is the
East Caribbean dollar. Given the dominance of tourism, many prices in tourist-oriented businesses are shown in US dollars. The EC dollar is pegged to the US dollar at a varied rate and averages about US$1 = EC$2.7.
Tourism Antigua's economy relies largely on tourism, and the island is promoted as a luxury Caribbean escape. Many hotels and resorts are located around the coastline. The island's single airport,
VC Bird Airport, is served by several major airlines, including
Virgin Atlantic,
British Airways,
American Airlines,
United Airlines,
Delta Air Lines,
Caribbean Airlines,
Air Canada,
WestJet, and
JetBlue. There is regular air service to Barbuda.
Education Antigua has two international primary/secondary schools: CCSET International, which offers the Ontario Secondary School Diploma, and Island Academy, which offers the International Baccalaureate. There are also many other private schools but these institutions tend to follow the same local curriculum (CXCs) as government schools. The island of Antigua currently has two foreign-owned
for-profit offshore medical schools, the
American University of Antigua (AUA), founded in 2004, and The
University of Health Sciences Antigua (UHSA), founded in 1982. The island's medical schools cater mostly to foreign students but contribute to the local economy and health care.
Online gambling Antigua was one of the first nations to legalize, license, and regulate online gambling and is a primary location for incorporation of
online gambling companies. In 2003, Antigua and Barbuda initiated a
WTO dispute settlement process with the United States, arguing that although some forms of Internet gambling, such as
betting on horse races, are legal in the United States, the
Wire Act, the
Travel Act and the
Illegal Gambling Business Act criminalize all cross-border gambling, constituting a discriminatory measure prohibited under the
GATS. In 2004, a panel of the WTO
Dispute Settlement Body found that the United States failed to accord services and service suppliers of Antigua treatment no less favorable than that accorded to its own services and service suppliers. In 2006, the United States Congress voted to approve the
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which criminalized the operations of offshore gambling operators which take wagers from American-based gamblers. This was a
prima facie violation of the
GATS treaty obligations enforced by the WTO, resulting in a series of rulings unfavourable to the US. On 21 December 2007, an Article 22 arbitration panel ruled that the United States' failure to comply with WTO rules would attract a US$21 million sanction. The WTO ruling was notable in two respects: First, although technically a victory for Antigua, the $21 million was far less than the US$3.5 billion which had been sought; one of the three arbitrators was sufficiently bothered by the propriety of this that he issued a
dissenting opinion. Second, a rider to the arbitration ruling affirmed the right of Antigua to take retaliatory steps in view of the prior failure of the US to comply with GATS. These included the rare, but not unprecedented, right to disregard intellectual property obligations to the US. Antigua's obligations to the US in respect of patents, copyright, and trademarks are affected. In particular, Berne Convention copyright is in question, and also material not covered by the Berne convention, including
TRIPS accord obligations to the US. Antigua may thus disregard the
WIPO treaty on intellectual property rights, and therefore the US implementation of that treaty (the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA)—at least up to the limit of compensation. Since there is no appeal to the WTO from an Arbitration panel of this kind, it represents the last legal word from the WTO on the matter. Antigua is therefore able to recoup some of the claimed loss of trade by hosting (and taxing) companies whose business model depends on immunity from TRIPS provisions. Software company
SlySoft was based in Antigua, allowing it to avoid nations with laws that are tough on anti-circumvention of technological copyright measures, in particular the DMCA in the United States. On 3 June 2024, US Ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda Roger Nyhus stated that the US might offer Antigua and Barbuda concessions to resolve the longstanding dispute over the $21 million compensatory amount.
Banking Swiss American Bank Ltd, later renamed
Global Bank of Commerce, Ltd, was formed in April 1983 and became the first offshore international financial institution governed by the International Business Corporations, Act of 1982 to become a licensed bank in Antigua. The bank was later sued by the United States for failure to release forfeited funds from one of its account holders. Swiss American Bank was founded by
Bruce Rappaport. Established in June 1994 as the East European International Bank, the European Union Bank (EUB) (), which was Antigua's first internet bank and was associated with
Alex Konanykhin, who had business interests with numerous senior
KGB officials, was shut down in 1996 by Antiguan authorities because the bank had failed to file its 1994 audit and was placed in receivership on 8 August 1997 with two Russians listed as bank directors, Vitali Papsuev () and Sergei Ushakov ().
Stanford International Bank was formed by
Allen Stanford in 1986 in
Montserrat where it was called Guardian International Bank. On 17 February 2009, the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Allen Stanford,
Laura Pendergest-Holt and James Davis with fraud in connection with the bank's US$8 billion
certificate of deposit (CD) investment scheme that offered "improbable and unsubstantiated high interest rates". This led the federal government to freeze the assets of the bank and other Stanford entities. On 27 February 2009, Pendergest-Holt was arrested by federal agents in connection with the alleged fraud. On that day, the
SEC said that Stanford and his accomplices operated a "massive
Ponzi scheme", misappropriated billions of investors' money and falsified the Stanford International Bank's records to hide their fraud. "Stanford International Bank's financial statements, including its investment income, are fictional," the SEC said.
Antigua Overseas Bank (AOB) was part of the ABI Financial Group and was a licensed bank in Antigua. On 13 April 2012, AOB was placed into receivership by the government of Antigua. On 27 November 2018,
Scotiabank, the leading commercial bank on the island, announced plans to sell its banking operations in Antigua and 9 other non-core Caribbean markets to Republic Financial Holdings Limited. ==Sport==