Results tagged “rent”

China’s August Consumer Price Index is out: a whopping 6.5 percent higher over comparable period last year, much higher than the 5.8 to 6 range economists were forecasting. The number, which measures inflation at the retail level, further breaks down to a 6.2 year over year price hike in major metro regions; but out in poverty stricken rural areas, goods and services are 7.2 percent more expensive than they were 12 months ago. In other words, poor people, who are always disproportionately hurt by rising inflation, are hit with the double whammy of even faster price escalation. While there is no golden standard for the CPI, most central bankers and economists are uncomfortable with a number above 2.5 percent. China has been trending between 3 to 4 percent for the past several months. The latest reading is a ten year high.

• Rent a car in Shanghai, drop it off in Beijing a couple days later -- all for RMB 1,200. We have our doubts whether this deal is available to foreigners, but right now it is only open to Shouqi Car Leasing Co.'s 10,000 members. Why? They don't want people driving off with their cars: "The high proportion of people who rent cars but fail to return them has been a major hurdle in China. About 6 percent of the entire Beijing rental fleet of 20,000 were stolen last year." Ouch.
• The Masters Cup Tennis Tournament will stay in Shanghai until at least 2008.
• Maybe someday it won't be all about the Maojamens. Replacing Mao's image on Chinese banknotes with Sun Yatsen and Deng Xiaoping, and other CPPCC proposals of interest.