Horrors! China's Attempts To Deal W. Pollution Could Cut GDP Growth From 10%/Yr To 7%/Yr!
Won't someone think of the spreadsheets?!?!?
EDIT
"Chinese people are very concerned about pollution, so it makes sense for the leading party to respond," said Wei Yao, an economist at Societe Generale. "What's most important to [the party] is social stability."
The changes are coming at the expense of economic growth, which has dropped from above 10% in 2010 to below 7% in recent years. Julian Evans-Pritchard, an economist at Capital Economics, said that China has recently intensified its war on smog. He predicts the efforts will knock 0.5 percentage points off GDP growth -- a loss of about $56 billion -- in the final quarter of this year.
EDIT
In Hebei, a province near Beijing, the owner of a glass factory told CNNMoney that sales had fallen about 15% this year as a result of the environmental crackdown. The owner, who would only identify himself by his surname of Li, said that the government had ordered him to upgrade to cleaner machinery, which had disrupted production. He spent 8 million yuan ($1.2 million) on the equipment, which is still awaiting approval from regulators.
The question is whether authorities are willing to stick with the measures as the economic pain increases. When China's economy wobbled early last year, Beijing loosened some environment rules in order to stoke the fires of growth.
EDIT
http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/27/news/economy/china-crackdown-pollution-economy/index.html