Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in full flow. Beaming broadly, favourite cheroot in hand, Brazil's president recounts with gusto the day he said No to the International Monetary Fund. "I called [Rodrigo] de Rato [managing director] at the IMF and told him I didn't want his money. He was really upset," he laughs. "Rato said: 'But lending to Brazil is really important to me.'"

For Mr Lula da Silva and his 190m countrymen, the memory of Brazil regularly going cap-in-hand to the IMF still rankles. Only a decade ago, in the wake of the Asian and Russian financial crises, Brazil was forced to devalue its own currency, the real, and seek emergency IMF loans. But now the tables have been turned.