The correct answer is B. Detailed solutions and a couple of good take-away lessons are available here.

-Patrick

Thanks Patrick. Very helpful explanation!!

Let annual rent for 1997 -100

1998 - 100+x

1999- (100+x)-y/100(100+x)

Rephrasing the question,


(100+x)-y/100(100+x)>100

(10000+100x-100y-xy)/100>100

10000+100(x-y)-xy>10000

100(x-y)-xy>0

-->xy/100<x-y

Option B satisfies this

Hence B

Thank you very much for the detailed solution.

I solved for the 1st statement by just taking a high level approach. If we start with a number, let's say 100 in 1997, then increase this amount by some percentage, the percent decrease in 1998 would HAVE to be a smaller percentage just to equal what we started with in 1997; because we are multiplying the percent decrease against a larger number. Simply knowing that we have a smaller percentage doesn't help because it may or may not decrease the total back down to our original number.

Not sure if this helps, my mind works a bit differently.