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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.

7,095 published reviews in this topic

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaEconomy & business

පිරවුම්හල් වෙත ඉන්ධන සංචිත ළඟා වූ බවට කෙටි පණවිඩයකින් දැන්වීමට ලියාපදිංචි විය යුතු අංක පිළිබඳව ලංකා IOC සමාගමෙන් නිවේදනයක් ?

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a message circulating on social media that purported to be a Lanka IOC announcement. It listed phone numbers for people to contact so that they could register for SMS notifications when fuel stocks arrived at filling stations. The review says the post also claimed fuel would be issued according to vehicle registration in the relevant area. The purported notice referred to May 19, during a period of fuel shortages and long queues in Sri Lanka. To check the message, Fact Crescendo says it called the listed numbers. Many were switched off, and a caller-identification app associated a number of them with members of the Inter University Students’ Federation. The publisher then contacted a federation representative, who said the numbers belonged to district organizers and alleged that the notice had been fabricated to disrupt a planned protest outside the University of Visual and Performing Arts on May 19. The review also reports that the federation’s official Facebook page described the notice as fake. The decisive evidence reported by the review is Lanka IOC’s own denial: the company said through its official Facebook page that it had not issued the notice and that the information was false. The review concludes that the notice was fabricated and notes that it contained phone numbers associated with federation members. It separately reports that, on May 18, Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera told Parliament that petrol demand could not be met over the next two days, and advised the public not to queue unless necessary. That shortage context does not substantiate the purported registration scheme; the review’s account instead rests on the company’s denial and its checks of the listed numbers.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaEconomy & business

2016 දී ඉන්දියාවේ මෙන් ව්‍යවහාර මුදල් නෝට්ටු අවලංගු කිරීම මගින් ලංකාවේ කළු සල්ලි අනාවරණය කරගත හැකිද ?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim under review was that Sri Lanka could uncover illicit wealth by cancelling high-value banknotes, as India did in 2016. The investigation examined both whether India’s demonetization achieved that aim and whether the proposal was suitable for Sri Lanka’s then-current economic conditions. It describes India’s November 2016 cancellation of some 500- and 1,000-rupee notes, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and says people were given several weeks to deposit or exchange the withdrawn notes. (S1: “2016 නොවැම්බර් මාසයේදී අගමැති නරේන්ද්‍ර මෝඩි විසින් ඉන්දීය රුපියල් 500 සහ දහසේ නෝට්ටු වර්ග කිහිපයක් භාවිතය පැය 4 ක් ඇතුලත අවලංගු කරන බවට රූපවාහිනිය ඔස්සේ සජීවීව නිවේදනය කළා.”; “ඔහු ජනතාවට සති කිහිපයක කාලයක් ලබාදුන්නේ බැංකුවල එම අවලංගු කල මුදල් නෝට්ටු තැන්පත් කිරීමට සහ බැංකුවලට ගොස් සල්ලි මාරුකර වෙනත් මුදල් නෝට්ටු ලබාගැනීමටයි.”) The review reports that the replacement notes were not printed as quickly as expected, people faced long queues, jobs were lost, and India’s economy experienced a setback. Its key quantitative evidence is an Indian central bank report from 2018: 99.3% of the cancelled currency in circulation before the measure was deposited in banks. The review says the expected trapping or identification of illicit cash did not occur. That evidence weighs against presenting India’s measure as a successful demonstration that cancelling notes exposes black money. (S1: “අපේක්ෂා කල තරම් වේගයෙන් අලුත් මුදල් නෝට්ටු මුද්‍රණය කෙරුණේ නැහැ.”; “එම වාර්තාවට අනුව අවලංගු කිරීමට පෙර ඉන්දීය ආර්ථිකය තුල භාවිතයට ගැණුනු අවලංගු කල මුදල් වලින් 99.3% ක්ම බැංකු වෙත තැන්පත් කර තිබුණා.”; “අපේක්ෂා කල ආකාරයට කලු සල්ලි හිර වීමක් / කලු සල්ලි ඇති පුද්ගලයන් පිළිබද අනාවරණය වීමක් සිදුව තිබුනේ ද නැහැ.”) For Sri Lanka, the article reports that accounting professor Aminda Methsila Perera considered the proposal impractical under the country’s conditions and warned that it could further weaken the economy. It also reports that Johns Hopkins economics professor Steve Hanke said India’s measure had failed and did not recommend applying it to Sri Lanka in the prevailing circumstances. The evidence therefore challenges both the claim that India’s approach successfully revealed illicit wealth and the suggestion that it would be a suitable solution for Sri Lanka. (S1: “වයඹ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ ගිණුම්කරණ දෙපාතුමේන්තු ප්‍රධානී මහාචාර්‍ය අමින්ද මෙත්සිල පෙරේරා පැවසුවේ ලංකාවේ අද පවතින තත්ත්වය තුල මෙම යෝජනාව ප්‍රායෝගික නොවන බවයි.”; “ශ්‍රී ලංකාව උදෙසාද පවතින තත්ත්වය තුල එය භාවිතා කිරීම නිර්දේශ කල නොහැකි බවයි.”)

Newsmeter NetworkEconomy & business

The post shows Increased bus fares in Tamil Nadu

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post claimed that a list of bus fares showed increases in Tamil Nadu taking effect on 18 May 2022. The review says the list covered regular, express, luxury, suburban intercity, suburban AC and Volvo buses. It investigated whether the listed amounts represented a new increase, rather than simply whether those amounts had ever applied. NewsMeter reports searching for relevant information and finding 2018 articles from The Hindu and The New Indian Express that gave the same amounts as the viral list. Those reports described increases including regular bus fares rising by one rupee, express or semi-deluxe fares going from Rs. 17 to Rs. 24, and Volvo fares from Rs. 33 to Rs. 51. The review also lists increases for air-conditioned, ultra-deluxe and super-deluxe buses, as well as a higher minimum fare and toll-gate charges. The decisive context is that the matching fares were reported in 2018, while the claim presented them as a new increase in May 2022. The review says it found no recent news of a Tamil Nadu bus-fare hike and identifies the viral list as the 2018 increases being recirculated as recent news. Thus, the evidence supports rejecting the post’s claim of a newly announced increase taking effect on 18 May 2022; it does not establish that the listed prices were never in force.

dpaEconomy & business

Un travail rémunéré de mise sous pli.

Publisher’s rating: Cette annonce est une arnaque. La photo utilisée a été volée sur le site d'une association française qui n'a absolument rien à voir avec cette affaire.

The review investigates a Facebook post shared in a Belgian group that offered paid work putting material into envelopes. It said the position was available immediately, suggested payment would be made on site, and asked interested people to contact the poster privately. The review notes that comments had been disabled and that the post contained many spelling errors, details it treated as warning signs rather than proof on their own. [S1: “La publication Facebook, partagée dans un groupe belge, propose un travail rémunéré de mise sous pli. Les personnes intéressées sont invitées à contacter l'autrice du post en privé.”; “La possibilité de laisser des commentaires sous la publication a été désactivée, ce qui est généralement un signe suspect.”] The central check concerned the photograph accompanying the offer. The review says a reverse-image search on Google led to the image’s origin on the website of the French association Caméléon, where it was dated 23 May 2019. Caméléon’s work, as described in the review, concerns addressing the causes and effects of sexual violence against children and adolescents—not recruiting for the advertised envelope-stuffing job. The photograph’s unrelated provenance therefore undermined the post’s apparent credibility. [S1: “En faisant une recherche d'image inversée sur Google, on retrouve l’origine de cette photo. On constate qu'elle provient du site internet d’une association française, et qu’elle date du 23 mai 2019.”; “L’association Caméléon a été créée en 1997 et « développe une approche globale pour agir sur les causes et les effets des violences sexuelles à l’égard des enfants et des adolescents ».”] The review concludes that the Facebook offer was a scam, citing the stolen association photograph alongside the post’s suspicious features. It also reports that similar posts had been addressed in earlier fact-checking and on the French anti-scam site Signal-Arnaques, and that Caméléon had published a warning on its own Facebook page. The excerpt does not provide details of those other reports or the warning, so it does not establish further specifics about the offer’s operators or what happened to applicants. [S1: “L'annonce sur Facebook est donc une arnaque. Ce type de publication a déjà fait l’objet d’un fact-check de la dpa par le passé.”; “Face aux arnaques de plus en plus nombreuses, l’association a également décidé de publier une mise en garde sur sa propre page Facebook.”]

FACTLYEconomy & business

Sri Lankan Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe comments on inflation, subsidies, and interest rates

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a social-media post attributing to Nandalal Weerasinghe, Sri Lanka’s central bank governor, remarks favoring high inflation, criticizing interest-rate increases, opposing politicians’ subsidies, and urging foreign lenders not to lend to Sri Lanka. The review says the post was circulating amid Sri Lanka’s economic crisis and rising inflation in India. It reports that it found no reports attributing the viral message—or similar comments—to Weerasinghe. [S1]