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Instead of 40% of Poles reporting they’ve grown poorer, the CTV anchor claimed it was nearly 70%
CTV covered a survey on how Poles assess their financial situation.
Nearly 40% of surveyed Poles said their financial situation had worsened compared to 2024, and 27% said it had significantly declined, the CTV News anchor reported. She cited the results of a survey conducted in Poland. The Weekly Top Fake team found her claim to be misleading.
The CTV anchor spoke about the decline in Poles’ financial well-being during a newscast on April 24, 2025:
“More than a third of Poles believe they’ve become much poorer. That’s according to a survey by the Institute of Market and Social Research. Researchers wanted to know how people in the country assess their financial situation and how they’re coping with inflation and rising food prices. The results are far from encouraging. Nearly 40% of respondents said their financial situation had worsened compared to last year, and 27% said it had gotten much worse. More than half of Poles reported a sharp increase in their expenses."
Her wording implies that more than two-thirds of Poles are complaining about a decline in their standard of living: 40% plus 27%. The anchor referred to a poll by the Institute of Market and Social Research. The results did show that about 40% of respondents felt their financial situation had worsened. But that figure includes those who believe they’ve become significantly poorer. Among the 40%, only 12% reported a severe decline—not 27%, as the anchor claimed.
The CTV newscast also left out that more than a quarter of respondents said their financial situation had improved, and for one in three, nothing had changed.
The WTF team found similar survey responses from Belarusians, collected by experts at the independent research center BEROC. In early 2025, nearly a quarter of Belarusians reported a drop in income, 23% said their income had increased, and most said their situation had stayed the same.
