Policy implications for market-oriented reform in China

My 83-year-old landlady, a former European institution secretary, left her two-bedroom apartment in downtown Brussels three years ago for a nursing home after which my family moved in. Recently, she paid the first visit in three years to check her property. She felt satisfied with everything: the rooms were clean, we were doing fine with the neighbors and we had been depositing the monthly rent and other charges on time.

But when we said goodbye to each other beside the building's typically narrow European elevator, she politely asked two questions in broken English: "Did my lawyer write saying you need to pay 11 euros more from next month?"

Since she wants to live a quiet life in the nursing home, she has entrusted a lawyer to deal with me following the signing of the lease contract. It is summer now and the lawyer sent me a message a few days ago saying he is on holiday. She then said: "There is an index in the contract." I knew she was referring to a clause in the contract that allows her to increase the rent in line with Belgium's annual inflation rate. It is not a big sum. I nodded my head.