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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

FACTLYEconomy & business

Urbancroptc.org Central government jobs

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examined a purported offer letter from Urbancroptc.org, which claimed that jobs were available through the Agriculture Ministry and a central-government employment scheme. The investigation began after FACTLY received a screenshot of the letter and a separate screenshot of an applicant’s complaint that he had paid the organization and then could not reach it. The review’s central finding was that the scheme named in the offer did not exist under that name, and that the real scheme it resembled did not support the advertised jobs. The letter referred to the “Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Scheme” and promised salaries and benefits for fourteen years. The review said no scheme had that name. It identified the similar real scheme as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which it said falls under the Ministry of Rural Development, not Agriculture, and guarantees unskilled work for at least 100 days in a financial year—not employment for fourteen years. The review also noted that the offer letter’s ministry name did not match the formal name it gave for the department: “Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.” The review also reported checking the organization’s registration details and website information. It said a search of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website for “urbancroptc” found no such company, and described spelling and grammatical errors in the letter and website, nonworking phone numbers and social-media links, and an office address it said did not exist. It further said FACTLY had sent the letter screenshots to relevant ministry officials, but that the article would be updated if they responded. These points support the review’s conclusion that the advertised government jobs were not genuine; the excerpt does not provide a response from the officials.

MyGoPenEconomy & business

我的朋友的姊姊一家就去了上海，在Costco附近。她説中國報紙頭條：當天Costco烤了一千支烤雞，可是結賬只賣三百支。那七百支烤雞呢？當天開門收了四萬名會員，擠進了八萬多人購物。半天後先関門休業。在男女廁所的垃圾桶及其它空空如也的貨架上，到處都是烤雞骨頭，滿廁所垃圾桶！這下找到那七百支烤雞了。您相信嗎？她説這可不是笑話！丟死人了！消息封鎖內地！

Publisher’s rating: 大部分不實

FACTLYEconomy & business

Modi government loans from the World Bank.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The Facebook post examined by FACTLY claimed that the Manmohan Singh government had borrowed from the World Bank but that the Modi government was running India without taking any such loans. FACTLY checked the World Bank website for lending to India during 2014–2019, including loans made through the Bank’s IBRD and IDA arms. The review reports that the World Bank lent India $21,750 million over that period for different categories and projects across the country. It also points to a specific agreement: a $400 million loan signed by the World Bank and the Government of India in June 2019 for the Program Towards Elimination of Tuberculosis. Those figures contradict the post’s claim of zero World Bank loans under the Modi government.

DUBAWAEconomy & business

Nestlé Nigeria Plc is Nigeria’s highest-earning company as at the first half of 2019.

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned Nestlé Nigeria Plc’s first-half 2019 earnings and described it as Nigeria’s highest-earning company. DUBAWA distinguished overall company profits from profits within the consumer-goods sector: it found Nestlé was the most profitable consumer-goods company, but not the most profitable company overall. The review states that at least seven other companies reported greater profits during the same six-month period. [S1: “There are at least 7 companies listed on other sectors of the NSE that reported higher profits than Nestlé Nigeria in the first six months of the year.”] To make the comparison, the review examined Nestlé’s half-year financial results and compared them with results filed by other listed companies after the deadline for unaudited accounts had passed. It reports that Nestlé’s after-tax profit rose to N26.24 billion, while MTN Nigeria reported N98 billion in profit for January through June 2019. It also lists six banks with higher profits, including Guaranty Trust Bank at N99 billion and Zenith Bank at N88 billion. [S1: “after-tax profit accounted for 22.3 percent increment. The result was an obvious shift to N26.24 billion”; “Nigeria’s largest telecommunications company posted a profit of N98 billion between January and June, 2019.”; “Namely Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, First Bank of Nigeria Holdings, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, and Stanbic IBTC Holdings; posted N99 billion, N88 billion, N56 billion, N31 billion, N59 billion and N36 billion, respectively.”] The review’s key qualification is that Nestlé’s leading position applied only to consumer-goods companies. Its conclusion was based on reported company profits, not on a claim that Nestlé lacked strong results: the article says its sales and after-tax profit increased, but the cross-sector comparison placed several companies above it. [S1: “While Nestlé Nigeria Plc is Nigeria’s most profitable CONSUMER GOODS company, it is not the most profitable company.”]