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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

FACTLYEconomy & business

German government has lowered the raised fuel prices, as its people abandoned their cars on road as a mark of protest.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim links an image of cars on a road to a protest in Germany against rising fuel prices, and says the government lowered prices in response. The review’s investigation focuses on whether the image shows that protest. It says the image instead depicts a traffic jam in Shenzhen, China, so the photo does not support the claimed German protest. The excerpt does not independently verify whether the German government lowered fuel prices.

RMIT ABC Fact CheckEconomy & business

"Nearly 1 in 4 people in poverty works full-time."

Publisher’s rating: Overblown

Adam Bandt made the claim while calling for a higher minimum wage, citing poverty reports that counted people living in households where the designated reference person worked full-time. The review found that the 2018 report’s figure—one in four—described a household reference person’s employment status, not necessarily the work status of every person in that household. The review notes that the method assigns that person’s characteristic to other household members, including children and people who are unemployed or work part-time. To test the claim about individuals, the review asked three experts to estimate the share of working-age people in poverty who themselves worked full-time. Their estimates were 12.6 per cent, 12.2 per cent and 15.6 per cent. These figures are well below one in four, though the review also reports that the estimates depend on choices made in poverty analysis, such as who to include and how to treat household size and extreme incomes. The central distinction is therefore between a household-level statistic and a claim about individual workers. The reports’ reference-person measure can support a statement about people living in households whose reference person works full-time; by itself, it cannot establish that one in four people in poverty personally works full-time. On the individual-status analysis described by the review, Bandt’s wording overstates the share.

Pagella PoliticaEconomy & business

Il nostro è un Paese nel quale il 20 per cento della popolazione detiene oltre il 66 per cento della ricchezza complessiva

Publisher’s rating: C'eri quasi

Nicola Fratoianni, a member of parliament and leader of Sinistra Italiana, made the statement during the television program Mezz’ora in più on April 28. Pagella Politica checked whether the 20% and 66% figures were supported and whether they were current. It traced the figures to Oxfam Italia’s report Disuguitalia, published on January 22, 2018, which gave a matching estimate for Italy at the end of the first half of 2017: the richest fifth held 66.4% of national wealth. That supports the claim’s approximate figure for that period.

Pagella PoliticaEconomy & business

Lo shock fiscale di Trump ha portato in 13 Stati della confederazione americana la disoccupazione sostanzialmente a tasso zero

Publisher’s rating: Nì

The review assesses a statement Matteo Salvini made on 27 May 2019: that unemployment had reached “substantially” zero in 13 U.S. states, and that Trump’s tax cuts were responsible. It compares that assertion with U.S. Department of Labor figures for April 2019 and considers the proposed causal link separately from the unemployment figures. The investigation notes that the U.S. unemployment rate was 3.6%, but explains why “zero” is not a useful literal benchmark: employment levels normally include some unemployment. It uses 4.6% as a reference point for the natural rate, citing a Congressional Budget Office estimate; it also reports that the Federal Reserve put the range at 4–5%. On the 4.6% benchmark, the review counts 44 of 51 jurisdictions—including the District of Columbia—as below it, not 13. It identifies Mississippi, West Virginia, Alaska, New Mexico, Arizona, the District of Columbia, and Washington as above that threshold. None had zero unemployment; Vermont was lowest, at 2.2%. For context on the trend, the review compares the same threshold in December 2016, when 24 of 51 jurisdictions were below it. But it says the figures do not establish that Trump’s late-2017 tax cuts caused the subsequent decline. The review reports that unemployment had already fallen during Obama’s presidency, reaching 4.7% in January 2017, and that the increase in employment began in 2010. It therefore distinguishes the observed improvement from Salvini’s claim about its cause.