(Barbados Nation) Prime Minister Freundel Stuart will visit Washington this month for meetings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and Barbadian nationals in the United States capital.
It will be his first visit to Washington as Barbados’ leader, and while in town, he will call on new IMF managing director Christine Lagarde and senior officials of the World Bank and is expected to discuss the state of Barbados’ economy and how the country was coping with fallout from the global financial debacle.
The Stuart administration is grappling with a growing fiscal deficit, relatively high unemployment and a mountain of foreign and domestic debt, all of which can lead to the downgrading of the country’s investment grade rating to junk bond status by both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, two Wall Street credit rating giants with headquarters in New York.
Stuart will also address the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States, the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, and will open a symposium of the Caribbean Sea Commission.
