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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

Pagella PoliticaEconomy & business

Ecco la certificazione che questo governo a trazione Cinquestelle sta facendo male al Paese. Nei primi 3 mesi del 2019 la pressione fiscale è aumentata dello 0,3 per cento.

Publisher’s rating: C'eri quasi

Silvio Berlusconi said on Facebook that Italy’s tax burden had risen by 0.3 per cent in the first three months of 2019, presenting the increase as evidence that the government was harming the country. The review checked the figures against an Istat report published on 26 June 2019, which covered public-finance data for the first quarter. It found the comparison was correct: the tax burden was 38 per cent of GDP in January–March 2019, up 0.3 percentage points from the same period in 2018, when it was 37.7 per cent. That increase did not, by itself, establish that the national government caused it. The review explains that the measure reflects tax and contribution revenue relative to GDP, not tax-rate changes alone. Revenue can rise even when rates stay the same—for example, the review cites a 5.4 per cent increase in VAT receipts—and the ratio can also change with GDP. It further notes that the measure includes taxes collected by local administrations, whose decisions can affect the total. The review therefore distinguishes the accurate numerical comparison from the attribution of responsibility. It says responsibility for the increase cannot be assigned entirely to the government, because several factors affect revenue and GDP and the government controls them only partially. The excerpt also identifies possible policy effects, including the postponement of Inail insurance-premium payments and increased taxation on gambling, while cautioning that the overall consequences for receipts are not straightforward.

NewtralEconomy & business

Estos cupones de Mercadona que promocionan

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The investigation examined two social-media offers presented as Mercadona gift vouchers: one promised €500 and the other €100. It found the promotions were not authorized by Mercadona. The company’s communications department told Newtral that it did not organize promotions or prize draws and that its name and image were being used without permission. The review also reported that the forms and promotional wording were the same, although the offers led to different outcomes for people who submitted their details. The €500 offer did not ask for payment, but the review said its form would pass users’ information to third parties for commercial contact. The €100 offer requested a payment of about €2 to “verify” details; according to the review, its small print disclosed a recurring charge of €70 per month. Newtral reported checking domain-registration information: the €500 promotion’s domain was located in Panama and associated with Green Flamingo, while the €100 promotion’s was located in Scottsdale, Arizona. The findings support the conclusion that these were deceptive promotions, not genuine Mercadona coupons.

Pagella PoliticaEconomy & business

Nei primi 5 mesi del 2019 gli italiani hanno speso 23,6 miliardi di euro in carburante, di cui 14,4 sono andati al fisco. Un +1,4 per cento rispetto allo stesso periodo del 2018. Com’era quella barzelletta sul taglio delle accise?

Publisher’s rating: Vero

The claim concerns a Facebook comment by Democratic senator Francesco Bonifazi on 24 June 2019. He said that in the first five months of 2019 Italians spent €23.6 billion on fuel, €14.4 billion of it going to the state, and that spending was 1.4% higher than in the same period of 2018. The review traces the figures to a monthly report by the Centro Studi Promotor, which it describes as an independent automotive-market research organization that processed data supplied by the Ministry of Economic Development. The report’s figures support the spending and year-on-year comparison: it recorded €23.6 billion spent on petrol and diesel by Italian households and businesses in January–May 2019, 1.4% more than in the corresponding months of 2018. The review explains that spending rose despite a 0.3% decline in fuel consumption and a 0.8% fall in weighted petrol prices, because the weighted diesel price rose 2.6%. The reported €14.4 billion in state revenue included both excise duties and VAT, amounting to about 61% of total fuel spending. The post also joked about the government’s promise to cut excise duties. The review distinguishes that political point from the spending figures: it says the government had not reduced excise duties, and that the 2019 budget instead provided for a larger future increase if safeguard clauses were not neutralized. Thus the figures in Bonifazi’s statement are supported by the cited report, while the review’s discussion of the promise adds context to the joke rather than changing the basis of those figures.

Pagella PoliticaEconomy & business

Facebook ha fatturato di utili oltre 50 miliardi di dollari, più o meno il Pil della Serbia.

Publisher’s rating: Nì

The review examines Alessandro Di Battista’s statement that Facebook made more than $50 billion in profits in 2018, a figure comparable to Serbia’s GDP. It says the comparison with Serbia’s GDP was broadly on target: the country’s GDP that year was around that amount. But the review identifies a mix-up between Facebook’s revenue and its profits. Facebook had revenue of more than $55.8 billion in 2018, while its profits were $22.1 billion—far below the figure Di Battista gave. The review therefore distinguishes the figure that made the comparison plausible from the company’s actual profit figure.

台灣事實查核中心Economy & business

網傳「長榮罷工 害媽媽見不到外婆最後一面...導致在20日就已經訂好22日飛往長崎的班機取消了」

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The post alleged that the Evergreen Airlines flight attendants’ strike caused a flight to Nagasaki, booked on June 20 for June 22, to be canceled, leaving a mother unable to see her grandmother before she died. The review checked whether Evergreen had canceled a direct Taiwan–Nagasaki flight on June 22, and whether the post’s account of finding a replacement flight that required a connection fit the available travel options. It says the post circulated anonymously on social media and was widely quoted by media. To check the cancellation claim, the review consulted Evergreen’s official flight-cancellation information for departures from Taoyuan, Songshan, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. It reports that none of the canceled flights from those airports was a direct flight to Nagasaki. It also checked Nagasaki Airport’s published route map, which showed no direct Taiwan route. The review notes a qualification: Evergreen canceled two June 22 flights to Fukuoka, and a traveler continuing from Fukuoka to Nagasaki could have been affected. But it judged that the post’s wording described a direct flight to Nagasaki, not a flight to Fukuoka followed by ground transport. The review also examined the stated replacement plan. It compared travel options using airport route information and transport information, including airport websites and Google Maps. Its account says the most practical route was to fly to Fukuoka and continue by public transport, while the post described a connection through another Japanese city. The review therefore concluded that both the claimed canceled direct flight and the described replacement plan did not match the information it checked.

Pagella PoliticaEconomy & business

La flat tax è una ottima idea, proposta prima ancora che dalla Lega da Forza Italia nel lontano 1994.

Publisher’s rating: Vero

Renato Brunetta’s claim concerned whether Forza Italia had proposed a flat tax before the Lega, not whether the two parties’ later tax plans were identical. The review examined the parties’ 1994 political programmes and distinguished that historical claim from the tax measures described by the government led by Giuseppe Conte in 2019. The decisive evidence was in Forza Italia’s 1994 election programme: it proposed a single 30 per cent personal income tax rate for everyone. The review contrasted this with the Lega’s programme from the same year, which called for a revision of the tax system but did not propose a fixed rate. On that comparison, the review concluded that Forza Italia had proposed a flat tax before the Lega. The review also qualified what that conclusion does—and does not—establish. It said the 2018 centre-right programme proposed a single rate without specifying its level, while the government agreement provided for two fixed rates, 15 and 20 per cent. It therefore distinguished Berlusconi’s single-rate proposal from later measures or proposals described as a “flat tax,” which the review said did not amount to one rate across income brackets. The review’s conclusion supports Brunetta’s historical comparison, not an equivalence between the 1994 proposal and the government’s later plans.