In the course of 1980 and the first half of 1981 important economic and financial changes occurred in the South African economy. Following a period of rapid economic expansion during 1980, physical constraints in the form of scarcities of skilled labour and certain production inputs, and the almost full utilisation of production capacity, caused economic growth to moderate from the beginning of 1981. After rising by about 8 per cent in 1980, the real gross domestic product was nevertheless still about 4% per cent higher in the first half of 1981 than in the corresponding period of 1980. This represented a most satisfactory growth performance from an already high base.