TY - JOUR AB - Economic Trends and Composition In the more than three decades since the second world war, the South African economy has experienced rapid growth. In the years 1945–65, the average annual growth rate in real gross domestic product was 5·2 per cent. (During this sustained twenty‐year growth period, the country's population increased by an average of 2·3 per cent, which means that an annual increase in per capita product of 2·9 per cent was registered.) In the years 1966–72, economic growth was even more rapid, at an annual rate of around 6 per cent in real terms. In concert with many other countries, South Africa's economic performance has been weaker over the past five years (1973–77) with growth rates hovering about zero; excess capacity; inflation; and growing open unemploy‐ment (in addition to traditional and no doubt very substantial under‐employment, especially in the large semi‐subsistence sector). VL - 5 IS - 3 SN - 0306-8293 DO - 10.1108/eb013826 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/eb013826 AU - Nieuwenhuysen John PY - 1978 Y1 - 1978/01/01 TI - Social Economics and Political Change in South Africa T2 - International Journal of Social Economics PB - MCB UP Ltd SP - 148 EP - 157 Y2 - 2024/09/19 ER -