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Hurricane Jimena forced a major international conference on tax transparency to be moved to Mexico City from Baja California, the Mexican authorities said Monday.
"The meeting of the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information due to take place September 1-2 has been moved to Mexico City," the finance ministry said in a statement.
The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in a statement on its website that the conference had been moved from the resort of Los Cabos because of the "threat of severe damage posed by Hurricane Jimena.
"On the basis of latest information indicating that Hurricane Jimena is now likely to make landfall on the southern part of the peninsula of Baja California on Wednesday, Mexico’s national authorities are advising to take all possible precautions and have issued a hurricane warning for the area," it said.
The northwestern state of Baja California was placed on high alert earlier Monday as Jimena, rated an "extremely dangerous" Category Four storm, approached with winds gusting at up to 177 miles per hour (285 kilometers per hour).
Representatives from almost 100 governments have been invited to the OECD conference, which will be chaired by Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens and attended by OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria, a former Mexican foreign and finance minister.
Apart from the change of venue, the meeting will go ahead as planned on Tuesday and Wednesday, the OECD said.
