Is this sentence gramatically correct?

[ranjan.mittal]

I came across this sentence reading the recent edition of economist:

The euro zone’s economy
grew by 0.5% in the last three
months of 2013 compared with
the same quarter a year earlier,
as the recovery gathered pace.

I have a doubt that ... economy grew by 0.5% in the last three month "COMPARED WITH" the same quarter a year earlier ... should it be

economy grew by 0.5% in the last three month "FROM" the same quarter a year earlier.

or

economy grew by 0.5% in the last three month "COMPARED WITH THE GROWTH in" the same quarter a year earlier.

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

Yeah, that's weird. Is that exactly how the sentence is written?

If that sentence appears by itself, it's nonsense. "Grew by 0.5% in these three months" is not a comparative"”it's a growth rate for those three months.
E.g., Tommy grew four inches between his 13th and 14th birthdays. "”> It's probably clear why putting "compared to xxx" doesn't make sense here. "Tommy grew 4 inches" is not Tommy versus anyone else.

It's possible that this sentence appeared in some larger context; maybe, say, they were looking at the same three months in previous years.

Still, the sentence isn't sensible by itself; at the end of the day, that's the only thing that matters on this forum (since GMAT SC sentences don't appear within a larger context).

[ranjan.mittal]

Dear Ron,

The complete news story published in Economist (Pg 8 28 feb 2014 issue) is as follows:

"The euro zone’s economy
grew by 0.5% in the last three
months of 2013 compared with
the same quarter a year earlier,
as the recovery gathered pace.
Portugal did particularly well,
with GDP up by 1.6%. Portuguese
exports are supporting
its turnaround, now accounting
for 41% of national output
compared with 27% in 2009."


Am I correct if I write it as

The economy grew by 0.5% in the last three month COMPARED WITH THE GROWTH in the same quarter a year earlier, as the recovery gathered pace. Portugal did particularly well, with GDP up by 1.6%. Portuguese exports are supporting its turnaround, now accounting for 41% of national output compared with 27% in 2009."


Another sentence I find weird is

"However much governments around the world may agree that nuclear proliferation must be halted and that steps should be implemented to reduce the level of nuclear stockpiles, it is difficult for countries to come to agreement on the specific methods of implementing such practices."

Is it much government or many government. Government is countable right?


Thanks for taking pain to help me understand!

[RonPurewal]

Dear Ron,

The complete news story published in Economist (Pg 8 28 feb 2014 issue) is as follows:

"The euro zone’s economy
grew by 0.5% in the last three
months of 2013 compared with
the same quarter a year earlier,
as the recovery gathered pace.
Portugal did particularly well,
with GDP up by 1.6%. Portuguese
exports are supporting
its turnaround, now accounting
for 41% of national output
compared with 27% in 2009."


Am I correct if I write it as

The economy grew by 0.5% in the last three month COMPARED WITH THE GROWTH in the same quarter a year earlier, as the recovery gathered pace. Portugal did particularly well, with GDP up by 1.6%. Portuguese exports are supporting its turnaround, now accounting for 41% of national output compared with 27% in 2009."

The problem with this question is that it's a non-question, because the meaning of the original isn't clear.

After reading the original more times than I care to admit, I think that the intended meaning is this: "If you look at the % growth for the first three months of this year VS. the % growth for the first three months of last year, you'll see that the % for this year is higher by 0.5 percentage points."
E.g., maybe the growth for the first three months of this year was 1.5%, compared to 1.0% last year"”yielding a difference of 1.5% - 1.0% = 0.5 percentage points.

I'm coming up with this only because the entire comparison is otherwise meaningless. I.e., if the purpose of the sentence is just to point out that the economy grew by 0.5% during the first three months of this year, then that's an absolute statistic, so the comparison doesn't make any sense (as I pointed out in the last post).

[RonPurewal]

Oh, and the problems with that sentence don't even stop there"”I think the author is also confusing "percent" with "percentage points".

In my example above, 1.5% is 0.5 percentage points greater than 1.0% (= the difference if you subtract the two percentages). On the other hand, 1.5% is actually 50 percent greater than 1.0%, for the same reason that 1.5 is 50% greater than 1.0.

Again, I'm assuming the author meant percentage points (and not actual percent change) for mostly common-sense reasons. If the author actually meant that the growth rate was 0.5% higher than last year's growth rate, that would be a completely insignificant difference (e.g., a growth rate of 1.005% versus 1.000% for last year).
On the other hand, most economies grow by just a few percent over the course of an entire year, meaning that, for three months, 2% or even 1% growth is pretty significant. So, a difference of 0.5 percentage points is very meaningful.
Yeah. So, that. Is probably what the author meant. Jee whiz.

Obviously this is of little concern here, since this is the verbal section. But, yeah. Lots of issues in this sentence.
It's ok, we all fall asleep on the job from time to time. (:

[RonPurewal]

Another sentence I find weird is

"However much governments around the world may agree that nuclear proliferation must be halted and that steps should be implemented to reduce the level of nuclear stockpiles, it is difficult for countries to come to agreement on the specific methods of implementing such practices."

Is it much government or many government. Government is countable right?


Thanks for taking pain to help me understand!

Yeah, no, you're looking at the wrong thing entirely. Much isn't modifying government at all.
I'm going to guess that you rushed into analyzing grammar, without first getting a good enough idea of what the sentence is supposed to say.
Don't do that. Because analyzing grammar without understanding the intended meaning is, well... impossible.

What's going on in this sentence is the same as this:
Wife: We need to buy some furniture.
Husband: I don't really care about furniture.
Wife: However little you may care about furniture, sweet stuff, we still have to buy some.

"Little" (obviously) isn't describing "you" (= the husband) here; it's describing how little he cares about buying furniture. It's an adverb.
"Much" is doing the same thing in the sentence here.

The real point is that, even if you didn't immediately have the grammar figured out, you should've already known that "much" describes "care", just from a common-sense reading of the sentence.

[ranjan.mittal]

Thanks! Ron for giving so much time in replying. I understood where my reasoning went wrong. Thanks again!

[jnelson0612]

Thanks! Ron for giving so much time in replying. I understood where my reasoning went wrong. Thanks again!

Great! :-)

[RonPurewal]

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