経済はマイナス成長を記録した。

Sentence Discussions Japanese
#1
English Translation

The economy recorded a negative growth.

At first i thought this was just a sentence that doesn’t make sense, since i know “negative” has also been imported into japanese, but it turns out that the imported form of “minus” really is prefered in this context

#2

@ErisCeos
Yes, we loaned the English term “minus” in a strange way. マイナス成長/プラス成長 are quite common phrases in economics. We use マイナス when the degree of a situation is quantitative. For example,

  • トムは仕事はできるが部下に冷たいのがマイナス点だ。(meaning: Although Tom’s work performance is high, he isn’t a social person toward his subordinates. That’s his disadvantage.) - You may hear this kind of comment during a performance review session with HR.

  • 今年の売上は前年比でマイナスだ。(meaning: The annual turnover this year is less than that of last year.)

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