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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

Modi mortgaged Lucknow Airport at 46 crores for 50 years. Lucknow Airport makes a profit of 120 crores per year.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned Lucknow Airport: it said Modi had mortgaged the airport for 50 years at 46 crores and that the airport makes 120 crores in profit each year. The review’s account says the arrangement was instead a 50-year lease to the Adani Group, awarded after bids were invited. It explains that the bid was based on revenue per passenger, not a fixed payment of 46 crores for the whole term. The review describes checking news coverage and an Airports Authority of India (AAI) release on the airport bids: “The lease was granted for 50 years based on ‘Revenue per passenger’ payable to AAI by the bidder. There was no fixed price such as 46 crores for 50 years, as quoted in the post.” The review also addresses the claimed annual profit. It says FACTLY obtained figures from the AAI through an RTI request and found that Lucknow Airport’s profits did not cross 100 crores in any of the years 2014–15 through 2017–18. That evidence contradicts the claim of 120 crores in annual profit for the period examined; the excerpt does not establish profits for other years. The review states: “According to the information provided by AAI in reply to an RTI filed by FACTLY, the profits of Lucknow Airport between the years 2014-15 to 2017-18 never crossed 100 crore mark.” For context on the lease’s passenger-based terms, the review reports that Lucknow Airport had around 5.5 million passengers in 2018–19 and that, at the bid rate of 171 rupees per passenger, AAI would receive about 94 crores per year. It therefore distinguishes the airport’s reported operating profits from the amount payable to AAI under the lease: “So, if Adani Group pays 171 Rupees per passenger, then AAI will get around 94 crores per year.”

Fact CrescendoEconomy & business

Claim: Pulses price decreased half in Modi rule

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The investigation concerns a Facebook post claiming that pulses had become half as expensive under Modi. It describes the post, published on 21 March 2019 by an account named Nachiyar Thamizhachi, as sharing a price list on letterhead attributed to the Salem Tuesday Bazaar Grocery and Shop Traders’ Welfare Association. The list was dated 20 March 2019 and said pulse prices, high through 2014, had gradually fallen to half by 2019. The review reports that the list was being shared as evidence that prices had fallen under the BJP government. (S1) To check the claim, the review says it followed a linked news item back to a report published by The Hindu on 19 October 2015, later updated in 2016. That report said pigeon pea had reached as much as ₹200 per kilogram. The review also describes consulting BBC reporting on the rise in prices and coverage of subsequent declines. It says prices, which had generally been ₹70–₹90 per kilogram during the UPA government, rose sharply from 2014 and exceeded ₹200 in 2015; increased pulse production in northern states was given as a reason for prices falling to an average range of ₹90–₹150 in 2016. (S1) For a broader comparison, the review says it consulted Indian government statistical data covering 2011–2019. Its account is that prices were generally stable from 2010 to 2014, rose sharply from 2014 through 2017, and then declined. On that evidence, the review concludes that the claim of prices being half as high under Modi was false. The excerpt does not provide the underlying table, the specific pulse-by-pulse figures for 2019, or details that would independently verify who created the circulated price list; its conclusion is based on the reported price history and the government data it describes. (S1)

Pagella PoliticaEconomy & business

Chiudere l’Ilva vuol dire perdere un punto di Pil e mandare a casa 20 mila persone.

Publisher’s rating: C'eri quasi

The claim concerns Carlo Calenda’s estimate of what would happen if the former Ilva steelworks in Taranto closed: 20,000 jobs would be lost and GDP would fall by one point. Pagella Politica’s analysis distinguishes direct employment from the broader effects of the plant’s supply chain. It reports about 8,200 employees at the plant, or more than 10,000 when ArcelorMittal Italia as a whole is counted—both below Calenda’s figure. However, estimates that include the related industries are less certain and support his employment estimate. On GDP, the analysis cites a study commissioned by Il Sole 24 Ore. The study estimated that eliminating Ilva’s steel production would mean losing 6 million tonnes of output, worth about €24 billion. Pagella Politica says that amount was approximately 1.4 per cent of GDP, somewhat more than the one point Calenda cited. Thus the assessment found his employment number supported only by broader, more uncertain estimates, while the GDP figure understated the cited estimate by a few tenths of a percentage point.