Surged to within about 5%

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi, can anyone please explain what exactly ‘to within about 5%’ means in the following sentence?

Carbon dioxide emissions plunged by a global average of 17% in April, compared with last year, but have since surged again to within about 5% of last year’s levels.

Many thanks :+1:

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A global average of 17%, 5% of last year’s levels are out of 17% of the global average.

Guess work, please sorry, if it is wrong.

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Torsten, as I understand, it means that the emission has increased by a percentage which is between one and five of the last year’s level (causing the average to rise above the global average of 17%).

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