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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.

7,100 published reviews in this topic

Newtral.Economy & business

Teresa Rodríguez quiere quitar los ahorros a los ciudadanos para crear una banca pública

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a video circulated with a headline saying Teresa Rodríguez proposed taking citizens’ savings to create a public bank. Newtral reports that the video is real and comes from an Antena 3 news broadcast published in March 2015, but says the headline misrepresents what Rodríguez said. At the time, she was a Podemos candidate for president of the Junta de Andalucía. In the video, Rodríguez advocates creating a public bank that could lend to businesses and put collective savings to uses society needs. She also observes that citizens’ savings held in banks had not been invested in a productive economy that generated jobs. Those remarks address how savings might be used; the review says she did not propose taking people’s savings. Newtral reports that Rodríguez’s press office denied that she wanted to take people’s savings and said she had never proposed doing so. The review’s conclusion rests on the difference between the video’s actual remarks and the circulated headline, together with that denial: the video supports her call for a public bank, not the claim that she intended to seize citizens’ savings.

NewtralEconomy & business

Iberdrola ofrece un descuento por el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a viral message urging people with Iberdrola electricity service to call a specified number and ask for a 25% discount during the state of alarm. Newtral reports that Iberdrola told it a discount had existed, but only for a specific period, from March 22 to March 25, and that it had expired. The company said the offer was not general: it was for customers on the free-market tariff, rather than all Iberdrola customers. The review also distinguishes the promotion from the coronavirus crisis. Iberdrola’s explanation, as reported by Newtral, was that the discount was not related to COVID-19. Thus, the viral message presented a limited, expired promotion as a coronavirus-related offer broadly available to Iberdrola customers, which the source’s account does not support.

NewtralEconomy & business

Christine Lagarde dice que los ancianos viven demasiado y eso es un riesgo para la economía

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim circulated in an image attributing this statement to Christine Lagarde: that older people “live too long,” creating a risk to the global economy, and that “something” had to be done. The review notes that the image described her as the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, although she had left that post in July 2019. It says that mismatch indicates the image was a fabricated item that had been circulating for some time. The investigation reports that it found no interview or statement in which Lagarde made the quoted remarks. It also says a European Central Bank spokesperson confirmed she had not said them, and that the IMF denied the image’s attribution. The review therefore finds no support for the claim that these were Lagarde’s words. The review distinguishes the viral quotation from a 2012 IMF report on global financial stability. That report did discuss the financial implications of people living longer than expected, but the fact-check says it did not contain the quotation attributed to Lagarde. It also notes that she was not present at the report’s presentation. The report’s discussion of longevity risk is thus not evidence that she made the viral statement.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturEconomy & business

Der Satz des deutschen Wirtschaftsministers Peter Altmaier scheint gewagt: "Kein einziger Arbeitsplatz geht wegen Corona verloren." Doch die verkürzte Aussage des CDU-Politikers mit einem Zeitungsartikel zu mehr als 170 000 neuen Arbeitslosen in Verbindung zu bringen, ist mehr als irreführend

Publisher’s rating: Der Zeitungsartikel bezieht sich auf Arbeitslose in Österreich. Zudem ist die Altmaier-Aussage sinnentstellend zugespitzt, er hat vielmehr das Vorhaben der Bundesregierung formuliert: "alles tun, dass kein Arbeitsplatz (...) verloren geht."