text: In the run-up to the 2002 elections, the fear of Lula taking drastic measures, and comparisons of him with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, increased internal market speculation. This led to a drop in the value of the Brazilian real, and a downgrade of Brazil's credit rating. Lula chose Henrique Meirelles of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PDSB), a market-oriented economist, as head of the Brazilian Central Bank. As a former CEO of BankBoston he was well known to the market.
  Lula and his cabinet followed, to an extent, the lead of the previous government in economics. It renewed all agreements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which were signed by the time Argentina defaulted on its own deals in 2001. His government achieved a satisfactory primary budget surplus in the first two years, as required by the IMF agreement, exceeding the target for the third year. In late 2005, the government paid off its debt to the IMF in full, two years ahead of schedule. The Brazilian economy was generally not affected by the 2005 Mensalão scandal, which related to vote buying in the Brazilian Congress.
  In June 2005, economist and attorney José Dirceu, Lula's chief-of-staff since 2003l, resigned after he was caught up in a massive corruption scheme in the legislature, the Mensalão corruption scandal. In March 2006, Lula's finance minister Antonio Palocci, who had continued the anti-inflation and pro-market policies of the previous centrist government, resigned due to his involvement in a corruption and abuse of power scandal. Lula then appointed Guido Mantega, a PT economist, as finance minister.