On May 10, Beyoncé kicked off her Renaissance World Tour in Stockholm, Sweden. Michael Grahn, Danske Bank’s chief economist in Sweden, is now claiming that the pop star had an impact on inflation purely by stopping by.
According to Politico, new data from Statistics Sweden shows a 0.3-percent rise from April to May. This is sparked by “a broad set of goods and services, for instance, hotel and restaurant visits” and “recreational services,” which the publication notes as including concert ticket purchases.
“Beyoncé’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.”
However, the publication pushed back against Grahn’s statement, pointing out that large concerts or sports events can boost hotel prices and other costs in towns, but this does not stay permanently or affect the entire country.
Politico goes on to showcase another example of this, using the Roland-Garros tennis tournament in Paris as an example, which caused hotel prices to rise by 4.3 percent. Beyoncé also held a concert in Paris during her current European tour and the situation was similar.
