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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

Alemania pasa de trabajar 35 a 28 horas semanales

Publisher’s rating: Engañoso

The claim gives the impression that Germany as a whole changed its standard working week from 35 to 28 hours. Newtral examined the collective agreement between IG Metall and Südwestmetall, not a nationwide change in working hours. The agreement lets eligible employees reduce their weekly hours to as few as 28; it does not make that schedule the new general working week. The review says the agreement covers workers represented by the relevant collective arrangement, rather than all German employees. It also notes that employers may refuse a reduction in certain circumstances, including when it is not operationally feasible. Newtral reports that Germany’s Labour Ministry confirmed that collective agreements apply to the workers covered by them. Thus, the 28-hour figure refers to a conditional option under a sector-specific agreement, not a change applying to Germany’s workforce generally. The review also distinguishes the agreement from a Facebook post that it says claimed workers would move from 38 to 28 hours; the supplied claim instead names 35 hours as the starting point. Both formulations overstate the scope of the agreement if presented as a change for the country as a whole.

Fact CrescendoEconomy & business

Claim: Coimbatore Collector recommends job for beggars

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: Mixture

The viral post featured former Coimbatore Collector Archana Patnaik and claimed she had arranged college jobs for 12 people who had been begging. The review identifies the post as one published by the Facebook account Time Pass on September 9, 2019, and examines whether the reported action was recent or supported by evidence about Patnaik.

NewtralEconomy & business

El IPI ha caído un 5%

Publisher’s rating: Engañoso

The review addresses Pablo Casado’s claim about Spain’s Industrial Production Index (IPI), made during the first parliamentary question session after the summer recess. It says he compared May 2018—the last month attributed to Mariano Rajoy’s government—with June 2019, the latest figure he apparently used. The review reports that both months registered 106.5 points in the figures it discusses, and that this comparison produced a decline of 5.5%. It argues that the comparison is misleading because it uses different months in different years and figures that are not seasonally adjusted. The review explains that the National Statistics Institute (INE) had published July 2019 data by the time Casado spoke. It says a more informative comparison would use equivalent periods, such as the same months in consecutive years, while noting that comparisons of individual months can still be affected by differences in working days. On that basis, it reports that June 2018’s 108.6 points compared with June 2019’s 106.5 amounted to a 1.9% fall—not the claimed 5% decline. The review also gives updated comparisons: July 2018 to July 2019 showed IPI growth of 2.94%, while the average for the first seven months of 2019 was nearly the same as for the corresponding period in 2018. It says Newtral asked the Partido Popular where Casado’s figure came from but had received no answer by the time of the review.

Fact CrescendoEconomy & business

Claim: Toor Dal prices was similar as of now during UPA rule

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The review examined a Facebook infographic comparing GDP growth and dal prices under Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi. It attributed to the post the claim that dal cost Rs 200 per kilogram when GDP growth was 5% under Congress, but Rs 70–80 when growth was 5% under Modi. The review concluded that this comparison was false: its account of the figures found dal prices were lower during Manmohan Singh’s tenure and had risen after Modi took office. To assess the price comparison, the reviewers say they searched for historical dal prices and consulted a BBC Tamil report. They also examined Indian Consumer Price Index figures covering 2004–2019 and looked up current toor dal prices, reporting online retail prices above Rs 100 and a wholesale-market price of Rs 9,200 per quintal. For GDP, they consulted NITI Aayog figures for 2001–2014, which the review says showed growth falling to 4.47% in 2012–13 and 4.74% in 2013–14. These reported checks do not support the infographic’s implication that dal was more expensive under Manmohan Singh. The review also adds a qualification about the explanation for rising prices: it cites production shortages and a truckers’ strike as factors reported at the time, and says the price rise cannot simply be blamed on Modi. The supplied article excerpt describes the sources and figures but does not reproduce the underlying CPI table, linked BBC report, or price list, so those materials cannot be independently assessed from this excerpt alone.

NewtralEconomy & business

Mercadona va a sustituir productos españoles por extranjeros de baja calidad

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a viral message alleging that Mercadona removed 1,800 Spanish products and replaced them with low-quality imports sold under its Hacendado brand. Newtral identifies the message as circulating since 2013 and says Mercadona had already denied it in 2015 and 2021. The article’s conclusion addresses that specific allegation, not a general question about whether Mercadona sells imported goods. [S1: “La cadena viral circula en X (antes Twitter) desde 2013. En 2021 el mismo mensaje que estamos verificando se viralizó en las redes sociales y para entonces Mercadona dijo a Newtral.es que se trataba de ‘información falsa’.”] To check the allegation, Newtral reports the company’s earlier denial and its own later inquiry: after contacting Mercadona again in October 2023, its communications department said it was “absolutely false” that the company had eliminated 1,800 Spanish products in favor of foreign ones. Mercadona also said more than 85% of its assortment was nationally sourced and that its purchases in Spain exceeded €22 billion in 2022. [S1: “Tras una nueva consulta de Newtral.es en octubre de 2023, desde el Departamento de Comunicación de Mercadona responden que es ‘absolutamente falso que la empresa haya eliminado 1.800 productos españoles por extranjeros’. ‘De hecho, más del 85% de nuestro surtido es de origen nacional, lo que supuso un volumen de compras en España de más de 22.000 millones de euros el pasado año 2022’, agrega Mercadona.] The article adds examples given by Mercadona: olive oil was described as 100% Spanish, and oranges as coming from Spanish regions including Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, Catalonia, and the Canary Islands. It also points to company publications about Spanish-origin products. This evidence supports rejecting the viral message’s sweeping replacement claim; the excerpt does not provide an independent product-by-product audit or a separate quality test of every item. [S1: “Mercadona mencionó, por ejemplo, que el aceite de oliva es 100% español y las naranjas proceden de la Comunidad Valenciana, Murcia, Andalucía, Cataluña o Canarias. En la página web de Mercadona hay varias publicaciones recientes sobre compras de diversos productos cuyo origen es español.”]

YouturnEconomy & business

சந்திரயான் கிளம்பிய நாள் முதல் இன்று வரை தங்கம் விலை உயர்ந்து வருவதை நீங்கள் கவனித்திருக்கலாம். ஆனால் இதன் பின்னணியில் இருக்கும் தொடர்பு பலருக்கு தெரியாது. தங்கம்தான் உலகின் ஒரே முதலீடு என்பதை புரிந்து கொண்ட நமது பாரத பிரதமர் மோடிஜி, பல கோடி ரூபாய் மதிப்பிலான தங்கத்தை சந்திரயானில் வைத்து விண்ணிற்கு அனுப்பிவிட்டார். இது இஸ்ரோ தலைவர் சிவனுக்கே தெரியாத ரகசியம். அதனால்தான் சந்திரயான் தோல்வி என நினைத்து சிவன் அழும்போதும் கூட மோடிஜி ‘மன்மதன்’ படத்தின் சிம்பு போல சிரித்துக் கொண்டிருந்தார். உலகின் ஒருபாதி தங்கம் விண்ணுக்கு சென்றுவிட்டதால் தங்கம் விலை கிடுகிடு என உயர்ந்து வருகிறது. இதனால் அதிர்ச்சியடைந்துள்ள அமெரிக்கா, பாகிஸ்தான் போன்ற நாடுகள் மோடிஜியிடம் மண்டியிட ஆரம்பித்திருகின்றன. ஆனால் எல்லாவற்றையும் மறுத்து மோடிஜி தங்கம் முழுவதையும் நிலாவில் சேமித்து வைத்திருக்கிறார். தற்போது இருக்கக்கூடிய பொருளாதார மந்தநிலையில் சீனா, ரஷ்யா உள்ளிட்ட நாடுகள் தோல்வியை ஒத்துக் கொண்ட பிறகு சந்திரனில் இருந்து மொத்த தங்கமும் டெல்லிக்கு கொண்டுவரப்படும். அப்போது இந்தியாவில் பெட்ரோல் விலை 30 ரூபாய்க்கு குறையும்.

Publisher’s rating: Sarcasm