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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.

7,104 published reviews in this topic

NewtralEconomy & business

En Andalucía se está consiguiendo que una tierra que generaba desempleo cree empleo

Publisher’s rating: Engañoso

Teodoro García Egea, then secretary general of the Partido Popular, presented job creation in Andalucía as an achievement of the new regional government led by Juanma Moreno’s PP alongside Ciudadanos. He made the quoted claim at a press conference on June 4, 2019. The review checks that attribution against the timing of employment trends reported in Spain’s Labour Force Survey (EPA), rather than disputing that employment was being created.

Pagella PoliticaEconomy & business

In America le imprese pagano il 21 per cento di tasse. In Italia si arriva al 65 per cento.

Publisher’s rating: Pinocchio andante

The claim repeats a comparison Matteo Salvini made on 5 June 2019 on the television programme Otto e Mezzo: that Italian businesses pay 65% in taxes, against 21% for U.S. businesses. The review finds the comparison misleading because it sets different kinds of taxation against each other. It explains that the 21% figure was the U.S. federal corporate income-tax rate, while the 65% figure was presented as a broader burden on Italian businesses. The review distinguishes taxes on business income from employer taxes associated with labour and notes that VAT is collected by businesses for the state rather than being a tax on businesses’ income.

NewtralEconomy & business

Por primera vez en un mes de mayo ha caído un 7% la venta de vehículos

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Rafael Hernando, then a senator for the People’s Party, said on Telecinco’s Programa de Ana Rosa that vehicle sales had fallen 7% in May for the first time. The review distinguishes the reported size of the decline from the claim of novelty: it says the May figure was reported as a 7.3% fall after sales had risen in April, but argues that comparable May declines had occurred before. To check the historical claim, the review says it obtained historical vehicle-registration data from Spain’s Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (Anfac). It reports that, since 2000, four Mays had year-on-year declines greater than the one Hernando cited: 8.15% in 2012, 23.33% in 2011, 38.71% in 2009, and 24.31% in 2008. Thus, the data described in the review contradict the assertion that this was the first May with a decline of that size. The review also says Hernando’s press team referred it to news reports using Anfac data, while Hernando maintained that the May decline was unprecedented and linked it to the Sánchez government. The historical figures directly address the “first time” part of the claim; the excerpt does not provide a separate explanation of how the current-month 7.3% figure was calculated.

FACTLYEconomy & business

18 నుండి 55 ఏళ్ళ కూలీలకు లేబర్ ఇన్సూరెన్స్ ప్రీమియం ఒక సంవత్సరానికి 22 రూపాయిలు మాత్రమే. లేబర్ ఇన్సూరెన్స్ స్కీం ద్వారా లైఫ్ ఇన్సూరెన్సూ, ఆడపిల్లలకు మ్యారేజ్ గిఫ్టు, డెలివరీ గిఫ్టు మరియు ప్రమాదంలో వికలాంగులు అవుతే పరిహారం ప్రభుత్వం ఇస్తుంది.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLYEconomy & business

RBI issued a circular approving 5 days working for banks.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a circular image shared with posts saying banks would be closed every Saturday. FACTLY checked both whether the image was authentic and whether it supported a five-day work week. Its account says the circular could be found in the Reserve Bank of India’s Notifications section, but that its subject was different from the claim being circulated.

FACTLYEconomy & business

WikiLeaks has published the 1st list of black money holders in Swiss banks.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim reviewed was that WikiLeaks had published a first list of people holding black money in Swiss banks. FACTLY says the circulating post alleged that WikiLeaks had disclosed a list of 30 people who had put money in Swiss banks. The review’s conclusion was that WikiLeaks had not published such a list of Indians. To check the allegation, the review says it searched WikiLeaks.org for information about a list of black-money holders and found no relevant information. It also examined the history of the claim, which it says had circulated since 2011 in several versions. The absence of a relevant search result is described as one part of the check; the review also points to statements attributed to WikiLeaks itself. According to FACTLY, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in 2011 that black money in Swiss banks mainly came from India, but the organization did not publish a list of Indians who had stashed money there. The review further reports that WikiLeaks denied releasing such a list in official social-media posts in 2011 and called a circulated image fake. It therefore distinguishes Assange’s reported comment about the source of money from the separate allegation that WikiLeaks released names.

NewtralEconomy & business

La deuda pública se duplicó durante los dos últimos gobiernos del PP

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined a widely shared image claiming that the PP left public debt at 1,480,794 million euros—more than twice the amount it inherited. The review identifies the relevant period as Mariano Rajoy’s time in government: he took office in December 2011, and a motion of censure removed his government on May 31, 2018. Newtral says it checked the figures against official Banco de España statistics, rather than relying on the image’s assertion. The review gives debt of 744,323,111 euros on May 31, 2018, and 1,165,768,174 euros in the second quarter of 2018, which began in June. Those figures show an increase, but not a doubling: Newtral calculates it at 64%. The distinction matters because doubling would mean a 100% increase. The review therefore finds that the image’s central numerical claim does not follow from the figures it cites. The article also notes that the image had been shared at least 49,000 times on Facebook. Its account is limited to this debt comparison and the Banco de España statistics it consulted; the supplied text does not provide a separate table or further details of the underlying statistical series.

Pagella PoliticaEconomy & business

Il governo ha deciso di ammazzare le imprese. Con dl crescita chi ristruttura un appartamento paga metà importo, l'altro 50 per cento l'impresa se lo ritrova come "bonus fiscale" spalmato in 5 anni. Anziché spremere le imprese come limoni lo Stato abbassi le tasse!.

Publisher’s rating: Nì

The claim concerned a measure in Italy’s Growth Decree, which Giorgia Meloni criticized on Twitter on 3 June 2019. She said businesses would have to cover half the cost of renovations, with the state repaying them over five years. The review distinguishes ordinary building renovations from the energy-efficiency and anti-seismic work covered by the measure. It says the decree did not apply to renovations in the strict sense, such as installing stairs or lifts or changing façades and interior walls; it applied to the other two categories of work, which people may commonly include under the broader label of renovation. The review also finds that the arrangement was an option, not a requirement imposed on businesses: the company and customer had to agree to use it. The company would give the customer a discount and then recover that amount from the state over five years. At the time the review examined the decree, however, the implementing rules and conversion law were still pending, so the final details were not yet settled. The review describes both potential advantages and risks. The option could encourage customers to undertake work they otherwise could not afford, but the review quotes a construction-industry representative warning that larger firms with more capital and tax liability would be better positioned to advance the money. Smaller firms might feel pressured to offer the discount to avoid losing customers, despite the measure being formally optional. The review therefore rejects the claim’s broad framing as an obligation applying to renovations generally, while acknowledging a possible disadvantage for smaller businesses.

NewtralEconomy & business

Henry Ford es el padre de la jornada de 8 horas

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review examines whether Henry Ford was the first to propose or introduce the eight-hour workday or Sunday rest. It distinguishes Ford’s later workplace practices from the earlier history of those ideas, rather than disputing that Ford made changes for his own employees. The article says Ford reduced working hours, doubled wages and gave his workers rest in 1914, but argues that these measures did not make him a pioneer in applying them. For the eight-hour day, the review traces the idea to Robert Owen. It reports that in 1817 Owen formulated the proposal of eight hours each for work, rest and leisure, and applied it at his factory in New Lanark, United Kingdom. It also says Owen’s organization advocated wider adoption in 1833. The article adds that an 1869 US law reduced hours to eight for government workers, and that Spain’s first universal law covering workers across sectors was created in 1919. The review separately addresses weekly rest. It says the proposal dates to the nineteenth century, originated in England and was put into practice in 1880; it also cites a French workers’ party program signed by Jules Guesde and Karl Marx that called for a weekly rest day or a limit of six working days. It reports that Spain had weekly rest from 1904. These examples support the review’s central distinction: Ford’s 1914 changes came after earlier proposals, applications and legal measures. The article attributes historical details to historian Javier Andújar Prado and the account of Spain’s universal law to the Complutense University of Madrid’s Department of Law.