GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) | Re: Financial analyst said they were surprised that despite higher inflati

IMO, there are three decision points: 1. Verb Tense 2. Logic 3. Redundancy 4. Idiom

I) As the root sentence is written in simple past, the entire time frame of the sentence should be in simple past, unless certain structures require a change. However, as there are no indications for a time change, the verb in the underlined portion should be in simple past.
Ask yourself, why should it be in present tense? It is not a universal through but rather an event that occurred in the past at some point
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