Initial support by the business community dried out when contractionary monetary policies and hasty liberalizations caused a drop in manufacturing output of 26% in 1975. The first period advocating a Monetarist shock therapy and “seven Modernisations” is marked by a high rate of business bankruptcies and a significant loss of manufacturing share of GDP. The Chicago Boys argued that this was due to a lack of competitiveness caused by the development strategy supported before 1973. Chilean economist Ricardo Ffrench-Davis counters that the cause for those bankruptcies cannot necessarily be addressed to outright inefficiencies since the severe recessions (around 1973, 1975 and 1981), real interest rates at an average of 38%, hasty import liberalization and an artificially high exchange rate revaluation were the decisive factors of business mortality.