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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.

7,096 published reviews in this topic

maharat-newsEconomy & business

هل تحمي الصيغة الجديدة للـ"كابيتال كونترول" صغار المودعين؟

Publisher’s rating: غير صحيح

The review examines whether successive Lebanese capital-control proposals would protect small depositors. Its focus is the proposed government draft, which was due to be presented to parliament on 29 March 2022 but was rejected in joint parliamentary committees that day; the committees called on the government to submit a complete proposal. The review also considers criticism of earlier drafts and the delay in adopting controls, rather than treating the question as a claim about a law already in force. It concludes that the proposals did not adequately protect depositors’ money. For the new draft, the review reports objections raised in a 26 March statement by the Depositors’ Union. The statement said the proposal would create a government-monetary committee—including the finance and economy ministers and the central bank governor—with broad authority over bank operations, exchange rates and withdrawal restrictions. It also objected to distinguishing “new money” from other deposits: withdrawals from accounts other than new-money accounts would face limits set by the committee, with a stated maximum of $1,000 per person per month, in Lebanese or foreign currency. The review reports the union’s concern that the committee could change withdrawal caps without clear, objective criteria. The review places those objections alongside problems it identifies in earlier proposals. It says an earlier draft left the central bank to set withdrawal limits without objective criteria and gave a central-bank unit authority to review banks’ transfer decisions. The review’s overall reasoning is that the successive drafts shared shortcomings in protecting depositors, while delayed legislation allowed large transfers to take place earlier in the crisis. It further notes that the new government draft did not advance in committee on 29 March, so the described provisions were those of a proposal, not an enacted law.

dpaEconomy & business

Die Grünen-Politikerin Ricarda Lang hat angesichts steigender Lebensmittelpreis und der Inflation allgemein gesagt: "Einfach Portionen verkleinern."

Publisher’s rating: Die Grünen-Politikerin sprach in einer TV-Sendung über mögliche Wege zu stabilen Preisen - besonders bezogen auf Energie. Das Foto, das für das Sharepic verwendet wird, stammt von diesem Auftritt. Für die Aussage zu den Portionen gibt es nirgends Belege; sie ist offenbar erfunden.

The claim attributes the words “Einfach Portionen verkleinern” to Green Party politician Ricarda Lang as advice in response to rising food prices and inflation. The investigation examined versions of a Facebook image presenting the words as a news-style quotation. It found no matching article in a Google search using the image’s wording, and no other evidence that Lang made the alleged statement about food prices or inflation. The fact-check describes additional searches: searching for words from the supposed quotation also returned no suitable results, and an advanced Twitter search of Lang’s own tweets for terms related to inflation, food prices, “Portionen” or “verkleinern” found no results. The absence of search results is not the only evidence offered: the review also traced the image to a real television appearance and checked what Lang discussed there. The image’s clothing and background matched Lang’s appearance on the TV programme “Markus Lanz.” In a contribution on that programme on February 9, she discussed renewable energy as a route to stable prices; the review says portion sizes were not discussed. The investigation therefore identifies the image as coming from a genuine appearance but finds no support for the words attributed to her. It also notes that a February 23 tweet concerned her party’s measures for the wider population, including one-off payments aimed at reducing what the Greens call “fossile Inflation,” referring to energy prices—not a call to reduce meal portions.

המשרוקית של גלובסEconomy & business

ממשלת בנט ירשה כלכלה בקיטון ובקריסה

Publisher’s rating: לא נכון

The review checked Bennett’s March 21, 2022 statement that his government had inherited an economy “in collapse, shrinking” and turned it into growth. It assessed whether the negative trend was still in place when the Bennett-Lapid government took office on June 13, 2021, examining GDP, the budget deficit and unemployment, among other indicators. The review reports that Bennett’s office supplied no response or supporting data, so the investigation compared published economic figures and cited Bank of Israel analysis. The quarterly GDP figures show a fall of 0.3% in the first quarter of 2021, following two quarters of growth. But GDP grew 3.7% in the second quarter, which ended June 30; the government had been in office for only a little over two weeks of that quarter. Growth continued in the third and fourth quarters, and annual growth for 2021 was 7.8%. The review therefore cautions against crediting Bennett’s government for the whole year’s growth, while noting that the recovery was already under way before it took office. Other indicators point to the same timing. The budget deficit peaked at 11.4% in February 2021 and then declined. Unemployment had also begun falling before the new government: the review gives 398,000 unemployed, or 9.5% under the expanded definition, in the first half of June, down from about 493,000, or 12%, three months earlier. It cites the Bank of Israel’s account that the economy recovered rapidly after the third lockdown, in the context of vaccination and easing restrictions. The investigation’s conclusion is that conditions improved during Bennett’s tenure, but the positive shift began earlier; accordingly, it rated his claim “לא נכון.”

APA - Austrian Presse AgenturEconomy & business

Die österreichische Regierung verlangt höhere Steuern für Sprit und zieht daraus Gewinne für den Staat.

Publisher’s rating: Die meisten EU-Staaten haben zuletzt keine Änderung bei der Spritbesteuerung vorgenommen. Mit steigendem Nettopreis erhöht sich allerdings auch der Steueranteil, wodurch mehr an den Staat abgegeben werden muss. Eine Herabsetzung oder Streichung der Mehrwertsteuer auf Kraftstoffe wurde zuletzt zwar gefordert, ist aufgrund der EU-Gesetzgebung aber nicht möglich. Zur Senkung der Mineralölsteuer soll demnächst ein Plan vorgelegt werden. Die Bundeswettbewerbsbehörde (BWB) untersucht aktuell, ob wettbewerbswidriges Verhalten die Ursache für die hohen Preise ist.

The claim treats higher fuel prices and the resulting increase in tax receipts as evidence that Austria’s government demanded higher fuel taxes. The review distinguishes those points: it reports that Austria, like most EU countries, had not changed fuel-tax rates, while the tax amount collected can rise as the net price rises because VAT is calculated as a proportion of that price. The review’s explanation is that this effect can make it appear that the government is charging more, even though the tax rate itself has not changed. The review describes the price as comprising the product price and a profit margin, alongside mineral-oil tax and VAT. It reports that the mineral-oil tax is a fixed amount per litre, whereas VAT is 20 percent. It cites ÖAMTC figures for 2021, when taxes accounted on average for 54 percent of the price of petrol and around 49 percent of the price of diesel. Those figures describe the tax share of the price; they do not establish that the government had raised tax rates. The article also reports that politicians had called for VAT on fuel to be reduced or removed, but says EU rules did not permit that. Separately, Finance Minister Magnus Brunner had announced that a plan to reduce mineral-oil tax would be presented in the coming weeks. The review further reports that the competition authority was investigating whether restricted or absent competition contributed to high prices. This evidence does not support the claim that the government was demanding higher fuel taxes: it describes unchanged rates, a price-linked rise in VAT receipts, and proposed tax relief.

dpaEconomy & business

Dies ist ein Gewinnspiel von Walmart

Publisher’s rating: Das angebliche Gewinnspiel ist nicht seriös. Es handelt sich nicht um die Facebook-Seite von Walmart.

The claim concerns a Facebook post from an account called “Walmart FANS,” which said people could enter a drawing for slightly damaged televisions by commenting on the post and sharing it in at least seven Facebook groups. The review examined whether that account and giveaway were genuinely associated with Walmart, rather than whether Walmart itself runs giveaways generally. It reports that the post had been viewed more than 100 million times. (Source: S1.) The review found several differences between the account and Walmart’s official Facebook presence. “Walmart FANS” did not identify who was organizing the giveaway despite the stated legal requirement for an imprint, had been created on 16 March 2022, and had just over 1,000 followers. By contrast, the review says Walmart’s official page used a different logo, had more than 32 million followers, had existed since October 2009, and carried Facebook’s verification badge. (Source: S1.) The review also reports that the giveaway images appeared on other accounts, with a Romanian post using the same images but giving 31 March as the entry deadline, rather than the 27 March deadline stated by “Walmart FANS.” It notes that Germany had had no Walmart stores since 2006, when the department stores were taken over by Metro. Together, the account’s lack of identifying information and its differences from Walmart’s verified page support the finding that this was not Walmart’s Facebook page or a genuine Walmart giveaway. (Source: S1.)

Fact CrescendoEconomy & business

ការ​បើក​ប្រាក់​ខែ​ក្នុង​ខែ​មេសា​គឺ​ឌុប ចុង​ខែ​៣ គឺ​យើង​បើក​ប្រាក់​ខែ​ម្ដង រួម​ជាមួយ​នឹង​ប្រាក់​មុខ​ងារ​បន្ថែម ហើយ​បន្ទាប់​មក​ទៀត គឺ​នឹង​បើក​ប្រាក់​ខែ​នៅ​អាទិត្យ​ទី​៣ ខែ​ឧសភា ដើម្បី​ចៀស​វាង​បញ្ហា​ចំណាយ​របស់​មន្ត្រី​រាជការ​យើង។

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

המשרוקיתEconomy & business

היום כבר אין פנסיות תקציביות, היום יש פנסיות צוברות ופנסיות גישור

Publisher’s rating: דרוש הקשר

Ayelet Shaked made the quoted claim while discussing pension arrangements for Israeli career military personnel, after a bill concerning their pension payments passed its first reading. The review examined whether saying that budgetary pensions no longer exist accurately conveyed the current arrangements. It explains that since 2004 new entrants to career service have been assigned to funded pensions, but that this did not mean the state-funded element had disappeared for them. The review distinguishes the arrangements by how they are financed. In a funded pension, the employee and employer contribute regularly and the eventual pension depends on the accumulated funds. Because career personnel may leave service well before pension eligibility, the law provides them a bridging allowance for the period between leaving the military and becoming eligible for a pension. The review says that this allowance is paid from the state treasury, not from the employee’s accumulated savings. Thus, although the old budgetary-pension track was closed to new entrants, the review found a continuing state-financed benefit with similar funding principles. The review also describes unresolved rules and costs. Legislation left the eligibility details to regulations by the defense and finance ministers, but the review reports that those regulations had not been issued. It cites the State Comptroller’s finding that the military and Defense Ministry were paying bridging pensions using calculations not agreed to by the Finance Ministry. Its conclusion is that Shaked’s statement was accurate in describing the change of pension tracks, but needed the qualification that bridging pensions remain state-funded.