According to the FT, China is dropping gross domestic product as its performance metric for local officials in more than 70 cities and counties. Hopefully this will apply to the big Chinese cities too, where the impact would be more profound:
“Analysts say that adherence to GDP as a performance metric – thus linking it to local officials’ promotion – has contributed to environmental degradation and urban sprawl as officials encouraged heavy industry and bulldozed agricultural land to build housing developments...
It is unclear whether the reduced importance of GDP will spread to larger, richer cities, where powerful patronage networks have developed between government officials and traditional industries that have become rich on the old growth model”
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