In 1973 the democratically elected government of marxist Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup launched by the military of Chile. General Augusto Pinochet became leader of the nation and he set the nation on a path of laissez-faire economics, hoping to gain favor with the United States. Pinochet gave control of the economy to a group of economist who became known as the "Chicago Boys" due to many of them having been trained in economics at the University of Chicago. In the immediate wake of the coup inflation had reached a record annual rate of over 500%, and amongst the first goals of the Chicago Boys was to bring this under control. The overthrow of Allende was seen as a positive development by the major world financial institutions, and the IMF quickly began talks with the new government. IMF gave increasingly large loans to the junta, providing 79 million dollars in loans in both 1975 and 76. Inflation would decrease through the 70s, and the government budget was cut as the public sector was increasingly cut.