In her lecture, she contrasted the economic policies of the two administrations to highlight their differing approaches to inflation.

contrasted 是动词 contrast 的过去式。contrast 由前缀 con-（表示"共同"）和词根 -trast（来自拉丁语 stare，意为"站立"）组成，原意是"并排站立"，引申为"对比、对照"。在句中表示将两届政府的经济政策放在一起比较。