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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Economy & business fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about economy & business. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

7,093 published reviews in this topic

Factcrescendo Sri LankaEconomy & business

මහ බැංකු අධිපති නන්දලාල් වීරසිංහ විසින් රචිත බව සඳහන් කරමින් සමාජ ජාලා වල හුවමාරුවන නොමගයවන සුලු ලිපියක්!

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerns a lengthy Sinhala post circulating on social media as a translation of an English article supposedly written by Central Bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe. The post presents arguments about inflation, subsidies, debt and productivity as his views. The review says it could not find media reports supporting the attribution and then searched for an English article resembling the circulating text: “නමුත් අපිට එවැනි මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා සොයාගැනීමට හැකිවුණේ නැහැ. ඉන් අනතුරුව අප මෙම සිංහල පරිවර්තනයක් බවට පළවන සමාජ ජාලා සටහනට සමාන ඉංග්‍රීසි බසින් ලියන ලද ලිපියක් තිබේද යන කරුණ සොයා බැලුවා.” That search identified a similar article on The Sun Daily, published under the name Sampath Liyanage, with the headline “Inflation is not a problem; But a solution.” The review says it had been written months earlier and identifies its date as May 20, though the excerpt does not give the year: “එහිදී අපට මීට මාස කිහිපයකට පෙර රචනා කරන ලද ලිපියක් සොයාගැනීමට හැකිවුණා. එය පළව තිබුණේ ,The Sun Daily නම් වෙබ් අඩවියකයි. ඒ මැයි මස 20 වනදායි. එය රචනා කර තිබුණේ Sampath Liyanage නමැති පුද්ගලයෙකුගේ නමක් යටතේයි.” The review also reports that the Central Bank’s official website disclaimed responsibility for the article and posts based on it, and that the bank said neither it nor the governor was responsible for it: “ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව පවසන්නේ, Inflation is not a problem, but a solution… යන තේමා ඔස්සේ හුවමාරු වන ලිපිය කෙරෙහි සහ එය මුලාශ්‍ර කරගෙන පැතිර යන සටහන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව හෝ එහි අධිපතිවරයා වගකීමක් නොගන්නා බවයි.” The review concludes that the article was not written in English by Weerasinghe and that attributing its claims to him misleads readers.

Fact Crescendo CambodiaEconomy & business

ការអះ​អាង​មួយ​នៅ​លើ​បណ្ដាញ​សង្គម​កាល​ពី​ពាក់​កណ្ដាល​ខែ​កក្កដា​កន្លង​មក​នេះ បាន​លើក​ឡើង​ថា កម្ពុជា​ជាប់​បំណុល​បរទេស​រហូត​ដល់​ជាង ១៥,០០០​លាន​ដុល្លារ ឬជាង ១៥​ពាន់​លាន​ដុល្លារ​អាមេរិក ក្នុង​នោះ​បំណុល​ដែល​កម្ពុជា​ជំពាក់​ចិន​មាន​រហូត​ដល់ ៤៨​ភាគរយ​ឯណោះ។

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The post asserted that Cambodia owed more than $15 billion in foreign debt and that China accounted for 48%. Fact Crescendo Cambodia says it examined this claim against news reports and reports issued by the Cambodian government. It identifies a screenshot of the post captured on July 16, which included the same debt and China-share figures. The review’s central comparison is between outstanding public debt and a larger figure for loans agreed over a longer period. It reports that Cambodia’s public debt at the end of the first quarter of 2022 was $9.81 billion, all of it public external debt. The review says the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s public-debt situation report gave that same total and period. This is substantially below the post’s claim of more than $15 billion in debt. The review also notes that a Cambodian government report recorded $15.55 billion in concessional loan agreements signed with development partners from 1993 through the end of 2021. That is a cumulative value of agreements, not the reported amount of outstanding public debt at the end of Q1 2022. The excerpt does not provide evidence establishing the post’s specific claim that China held 48% of the debt. The review concludes that the post was misleading.

FACTLYEconomy & business

Indian Railways charge full fare for even one-year-old children

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns whether a one-year-old must pay full fare to travel on Indian Railways. The review’s conclusion is conditional: a child below five can travel free if no separate seat or berth is booked; full adult fare applies when one is requested. The review says the rules apply in reserved and unreserved classes, while a child travelling free is not assigned a separate reserved berth or seat. To check the claim, the review says it found a Ministry of Railways press release and an Indian Railways circular issued in March 2020. It reports that the circular states children below five are carried free without a ticket, but do not receive a separate berth or seat; if one is needed, full adult fare is charged. The review also describes a booking test on IRCTC for two adults and a one-year-old travelling from Secunderabad to Tambaram in sleeper class. That test showed separate options to add an infant with or without a berth. Selecting “without berth” meant no ticket was issued for the infant, berths were reserved for two people, and the fare was calculated for two adults. Selecting “with berth” reserved berths for three and calculated the fare for three adults. Thus, the claim omits the choice to travel free without a separate berth; it reflects the charge only when a separate berth or seat is booked.

dpa-factcheckingEconomy & business

Das ist ein Gewinnspiel von Ikea

Publisher’s rating: Das angebliche Gewinnspiel ist nicht seriös und dient dazu, Daten abzugreifen. Es handelt sich nicht um die echte Facebook-Seite von Ikea Deutschland.

FACTLYEconomy & business

‘India Post’ has recently released a notification for over 1 lakh vacancies

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a social-media post claiming that India Post had recently issued a notification for more than 1 lakh vacancies. The review says it searched the India Post website and found no such recent notification. It then traced text shown in screenshots of the alleged notice to a Department of Posts document, rather than to a recruitment announcement. That document, titled “Sanctioned strength of posts in various cadres in the Department as on 01.08.2022,” listed circle-wise sanctioned strength for Postman, Mailguard and MTS roles. FACTLY’s account says the figures were misread as vacancies: the document did not identify them as vacancies or provide job-application details. The review notes that information such as application dates, eligibility and exam centres was absent. As a further comparison, FACTLY cited the India Post 2021–22 Annual Report, which gave the MTS personnel strength as 23,728 on 31 March 2021. The viral post, by contrast, portrayed 37,539 MTS vacancies. These figures refer to different things—reported personnel strength and the post’s alleged vacancies—but their disparity was one reason the review considered the viral interpretation implausible. On the evidence it describes, the underlying document was a staffing-strength record, not a notification for over 1 lakh job openings.