The World Bank has cut its growth forecast for China's GDP to just 7.5% next year. Only 3 months ago, it was expecting 9.2%. And the Bank warns that the economy is dependent on "higher public spending" for more than half its forecast growth next year.
Chemical companies will also be alarmed by the Bank's suggestion that China's "export growth is likely to slow sharply", as "financial market turmoil hit the economies in other emerging markets". The blog's own forecast last month, in 'Budgeting for Survival, that China's growth could bottom as low as 5%, is no longer looking quite so unlikely.