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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.

7,103 published reviews in this topic

NewtralEconomy & business

Mercadona va a despedir a los trabajadores que hagan huelga en Cataluña

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a viral message circulating during the general strike called in Catalonia for 18 October 2019. It said Mercadona would dismiss workers who chose to strike. The review reports that Mercadona told Newtral the claim was false and said the company had faced a similar rumor in 2017. The excerpt does not describe a planned dismissal or provide evidence that Mercadona intended to punish workers for striking. The article also discusses a separate viral message about Bon Preu and Esclat. Unlike the Mercadona dismissal rumor, that message said Bon Preu would close its stores so workers could join the stoppage. The article says Bon Preu initially denied to Newtral on 15 October that its stores would close, then changed its position and announced a full closure for 18 October, with paid leave for workers. That development concerns Bon Preu, not a Mercadona plan to dismiss strikers. The review attributes its information about Mercadona and Bon Preu to the companies’ press departments. It also includes Bon Preu’s social-media announcement of the closure. The excerpt does not specify additional verification methods or provide independent documentation about Mercadona beyond the company’s response.

Boatos.orgEconomy & business

*_Oferta por tempo limitado, aproveite._* [11/10 20:06] Boatos org: Neste mês de outubro a rede de *Mercado Atacadão S/A* está com uma linda campanha para o dia das crianças, *criança feliz é criança de barriga cheia* e esta distribuindo milhares de cestas básicas, retire a sua. Parabéns! Você ganhou uma Cesta Básica! Como receber a Cesta Básica: 1. Precisamos ter certeza de que você não é um robô.. Para fazer isso, compartilhe nosso site com 10 amigos ou 5 grupos do WhatsApp (Clicando no COMPARTILHAR abaixo. 2. Depois de compartilhar nosso site com seus amigos, você será automaticamente redirecionado para ver onde a Cesta Básica será retirado. 3. Você receberá uma confirmação dentro de 2 a 5 minutos. O que você está esperando? Compartilhe nosso site com todos os seus amigos.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

NewtralEconomy & business

Llevamos 7 meses consecutivos destruyendo empleo indefinido

Publisher’s rating: Engañoso

At a PP economic event in Córdoba on 5 October 2019, party leader Pablo Casado said that seven consecutive months of falling indefinite employment were creating more precarious work. Newtral examined the figures he presented, which it says came from the SEPE’s monthly statistics on jobseekers and contracts. The chart showed the accumulated monthly variation in indefinite contracts between 2018 and 2019; the PP confirmed that this was the source of Casado’s figures. Newtral’s key distinction is between the number of indefinite contracts signed and the number of people in indefinite employment. Its review says fewer indefinite contracts were signed from March through September 2019 than in the same period a year earlier. But that comparison, by itself, did not establish that indefinite employment was being destroyed. To check the employment claim, Newtral also cited the INE’s Labour Force Survey, which showed that the number of people with indefinite contracts was still growing and was higher than a year earlier. Thus, the chart reflected a real decline in contract signings over the stated comparison, but Casado’s conclusion about employment did not follow from those figures and omitted the contrary employment measure cited by Newtral.

NewtralEconomy & business

Estamos reduciendo la deuda pública

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Pedro Sánchez said “Estamos reduciendo la deuda pública” during a 7 October 2019 interview with Vicente Vallés. The review assessed that statement by examining how Spanish public debt changed during his time as president, rather than treating a change between individual months as proof of a sustained reduction. The review says it consulted Bank of Spain figures. As a share of GDP, public debt was 98.6% in the second quarter of 2018 and 98.9% in the third quarter. The latest figure available to the review, for the second quarter of 2019, was also 98.9% of GDP. On that measure, the debt had not fallen over the period compared. It also checked monthly debt totals in euros: the figure rose from €1.16 trillion in June 2018 to €1.19 trillion in July 2019, the latest monthly figure then published. The review acknowledges that July’s total was below August’s, but says Sánchez’s statement did not specify a single month; it therefore assessed the broader period of his government. Newtral said it had asked the president’s press team for a response but had not received one by publication. The review’s printed rating is “Falso.”

NewtralEconomy & business

Por qué es engañoso el argumento de Pablo Casado sobre la inversión extranjera en España

Publisher’s rating: Engañoso

The review examines Pablo Casado’s claim that foreign investment in Spain exceeded €20 billion when Pedro Sánchez took office and had since fallen to €3 billion. Casado made the quoted comparison at the III Ibero-American Biennial Congress on 1 October 2019. Newtral says it checked official investment statistics from the Secretary of State for Trade, part of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism. The review’s key qualification is that the second quarter of 2018 did match the figure Casado cited, but it was not wholly a quarter under the Rajoy government: Sánchez took office in June, so the three-month period was shared between the two presidents. The review also reports that the Ministry cautioned that a strong quarterly result can reflect a one-off transaction and that comparisons should be considered against averages over several years. The review describes the second quarter of 2018 as unusually positive and says the second quarter of 2019 was not the lowest in recent years; two quarters during Rajoy’s final government had lower investment. It also reports that an economist characterized comparisons between individual quarters as vulnerable to seasonality and volatility. Taken together, the review’s evidence challenges Casado’s implication that comparing those two quarterly figures demonstrates a steady decline under Sánchez.