Even though the overall consumer price index did not change in April,

How do we know whether there is any general inflation/deflation in the economy?
Consumer price index (CPI) tells us. An increase or decrease in the CPI (periodically calculated using current prices) tells us whether an inflation/deflation is going on.

We found that the CPI did not change in April.
This indicates that there is no general inflation/deflation in the economy.

So the intent of the sentence is this: CPI is holding steady (shown by CPI figure of April (which could be the most recent month)). This shows that there is no general inflation/deflation in the economy.
But, prices in several category of merchandise has fallen (a contrast).

So a steady CPI indicates that the economy is not inflating/deflating.
"Having indicated" implies indication happened in the past and is over now. That is not meaningful.

"Having lived in London for many years, I know its climate very well."
implies I lived in London in the past but I don't anymore.

Hello experts AjiteshArun,egmat,VeritasKarishma,Marty Murray

could you please explain meaning of option A and option D?

thanks.

Hi kadamhari825,

Option A: Even though the consumer price index didn't change in April (this lack of change indicates that there's no general inflation or deflation), some prices have fallen over the last few months. The overall CPI didn't change, which means there's no general inflation or deflation. But that's across the entire basket of goods and services. Prices in some categories did fall.

Option D uses the perfect infinitive having indicated. Perfect infinitives are used to refer to an earlier time. This means that option D effectively ends up saying something like this: ~ "After the index had indicated the absence of any inflation or deflation, it did not change in April..." This isn't the intended meaning.

(A) April, indicating the absence of any general inflation or deflation, prices in several categories of merchandise have fallen
The meaning and tense is perfect therefore let us hang on to it

(B) April, indicating that any general inflation or deflation were absent, prices in several categories of merchandise fell
That usage is creating ambiguity and distorting the meaning therefore out

(C) April and indicated that absence of any general inflation or deflation, prices in several categories of merchandise fell
Independent clauses should not be linked with commas therefore out

(D) April, having indicated the absence of any general inflation or deflation, prices in several categories of merchandise fell
having isn't the right usage therefore out

(E) April, which indicated that any general inflation or deflation were absent, prices in several categories of merchandise have fallen
Which is modifying April , distorting the meaning therefore out

Therefore IMO A

Dear Experts,

I have 2 questions

1) The correct answer should contain present perfect tense because of "over the last several months" ,right ?

2) I have no idea why (B) is wrong? because of fell ? someone said that "were" is incorrect. Should it be "was" ?

Yep! "over the last several months" indicates that the action started sometime in the past (several months ago) and continues up to the present, so the present perfect ("have fallen") is appropriate.

Regarding (B), your first question leads us to our first vote in favor of (A) over (B): "have fallen" works better than "fell", given the context. You could argue that "fell" is acceptable, since the prices might be done falling. But given that the action was spread out over several months, the present perfect makes a little bit more sense.

And yes, "were" is a problem in (B). When you have an "or" construction with two nouns ("...X or Y [verb]..."), the verb needs to agree with the second noun. For example: "Either Charlie or his daughter IS the glutton who ate an entire pallet of cookies."

Same deal in (B): "...inflation or deflation were absent" is incorrect. And that's enough to eliminate (B).

I hope that helps!

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the overall consumer price index did not change in April, and as a result indicated the absence of any general inflation or deflation, but prices in several categories of merchandise have fallen over the last several months.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Modifiers + Tenses + Grammatical Construction

• The present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is also used to refer to actions that concluded in the recent past; however, the use of present perfect tense is redundant if the sentence otherwise indicates that the action concluded in the recent past, such as through the use of “recent” or “recently”.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the general past.
• "and" is the only conjunction that can join two singular nouns into a plural noun phrase.
• "who/whose/whom/which/where", when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.
• The introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- “indicating” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship.

A: Correct.
1/ This answer choice avoids the subject-verb disagreement seen in Options B and E, as it uses the present participle ("verb+ing") phrase "indicating the absence of any general inflation or deflation" rather than an active verb, as seen in B and E.
2/ Option A uses the phrase "indicating the absence", conveying the intended meaning - that the overall consumer price index did not change in April and as a result, the index indicated the absence of any general inflation or deflation; remember, the introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- “indicating” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship.
3/ Option A correctly uses the present perfect tense verb "have fallen" to refer to an action that concluded explicitly in the recent past.

B:
1/ This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun phrase "any general inflation or deflation" with the plural verb "were"; please remember, "and" is the only conjunction that can join two singular nouns into a plural noun phrase.
2/ Option B incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "fell" to refer to an action that concluded in the recent past; please remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to refer to actions that concluded explicitly in the recent past, and the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the general past.

C:
1/ This answer choice alters the meaning of this sentence through the phrase "and indicated "; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that the overall consumer price index did not change in April and as a separate action indicated the absence of any general inflation or deflation; the intended meaning is that the overall consumer price index did not change in April and as a result indicated the absence of any general inflation or deflation.
2/ Option C incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "fell" to refer to an action that concluded in the recent past; remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is also used to refer to actions that concluded explicitly in the recent past, and the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the general past.

D:
1/ 1/ This answer choice alters the meaning of this sentence through the phrase "having indicated "; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that the overall consumer price index did not change in April because it had indicated the absence of any general inflation or deflation; the intended meaning is that the overall consumer price index did not change in April and as a result indicated the absence of any general inflation or deflation.
2/ Option D incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "fell" to refer to an action that concluded in the recent past; remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is also used to refer to actions that concluded specifically in the recent past, and the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the general past.

E:
1/ This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun phrase "any general inflation or deflation" with the plural verb "were"; please remember, "and" is the only conjunction that can join two singular nouns into a plural noun phrase.
2/ Option E incorrectly refers to "April" with "which indicated that any general inflation or deflation were absent", illogically implying that the month of April indicated the absence of any general inflation or deflation; the intended meaning is that the overall consumer price index indicated the absence of any general inflation or deflation; remember, "who/whose/whom/which/where", when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "And" versus other conjunctions, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the concept of "Comma Plus Present Participle for Cause-Effect Relationship" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



To understand the concept of "Present Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

A) correct answer
B) were is wrong here. Noun or Noun construction uses singular verbs
C) it changes the meaning of the sentence. The use of 'and' conveys here these two actions are parallel and not related. The actual meaning shows there is a cause and effect relationship is here.
d) having + past participle can be used in the following ways
1)to talk about an action that was completed before a specific time in the past
2)also used in idiomatic expressions such as "having said that" to introduce a contrasting statement.
e) referent of which is april here that doesn't makes any sense

Can I argue that since "over the last several months" is already given and with the given context the phrase is giving a strong indication that the action is continuing into the present it will not be efficient to use the term "have fallen" and will be more effective to use "fell"?

In that case, the context would be giving a strong indication of one thing ("that the action is continuing into the present"), and the verb tense (fell = simple past) would be giving a strong indication of another (that the action does NOT continue into the present).

Neither interpretation is implausible, but the mixed signals would make the simple past, at best, confusing.

The simple past would be more appropriate if we were talking about a finite or one-time drop (i.e. "prices dropped IN April"). Since we're talking about a sustained drop over the course of several months, present perfect is better.

And if you aren't convinced, there are other reasons to vote for (A) over (B), as discussed in this post.

I hope that helps!