Crazy In … Flation.
American superstar singer Beyoncé, who launched her world tour with a concert in Stockholm on May 10, is partially responsible for the rise of inflation in the country in May, a senior economist at one of the top Nordic banks said.
Monthly inflation increased by 0.3 percentage points in Sweden from April to May, data published Wednesday from Statistics Sweden shows.
The hike was in part due to an increase in “a broad set of goods and services, for instance hotel and restaurant visits” and “recreational services,” which include concert tickets.
According to Michael Grahn, Danske Bank’s chief economist in Sweden, Beyoncé’s concerts in the Swedish capital are partly to blame.
“Beyonce’s start of her world tour in Sweden seems to have colored May inflation, how much is uncertain, but probably 0.2 p.p. of the 0.3 p.p. that hotels/restaurants added,” Grahn said. “We expect this upside surprise to be reversed in June as prices on hotels and tickets reverse back to normal.”
The economist was later quoted in the Financial Times, describing the event as unprecedented and “quite astonishing.”
Although large cultural and sports events can cause a momentary spike in local hotel and restaurant prices, they rarely affect national inflation numbers.
In Paris, for instance, hotel prices rose by 4.3 percent in May, as the French capital hosted the first week of the Roland-Garros tennis tournament … and another Beyoncé concert, on May 26.
