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The singer’s start of a world tour in Sweden in May has sparked demand for hotels and restaurants, which could explain why the country’s inflation rate was higher than expected that month, according to one economist.
UK Thursday 15 June 2023 08:15
Beyoncé’s two concerts in Stockholm last month may have contributed to higher inflation in Sweden, a senior economist said.
The American superstar kicked off her Renaissance world tour in Sweden with two sold-out shows in the Swedish capital on May 10-11.
It appears that demand for hotel rooms and restaurant bookings was so strong that it pushed up official inflation figures.
“Beyoncé starting her world tour in Sweden seems to have weighed on inflation in May,” Michael Grahn, chief economist at Danske Bank Sweden, tweeted.
The exact amount was “uncertain,” he added, but said the concert “likely” added about 0.2 percentage points to the overall 9.7 per cent rise.
That’s two-thirds of the 0.3 percent increase for hotels and restaurants.
Mr Grahn told the FT it was an “amazing” development that Sweden had never experienced before.
Some fans booked hotel rooms 40 miles outside Stockholm, the economist said.
“We expect this upside surprise to reverse in June as hotel and ticket prices return to normal,” he added on Twitter.
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Visit Stockholm attributes high levels of tourism and nearly full hotels to the “Beyoncé effect”.
In an email to The Washington Post last month, it said tourists from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom booked the most in the city.
According to Forbes magazine, the tour’s revenue could exceed $2bn (£1.6bn), although it admits the figure is based on “the most optimistic assumptions”.
Beyoncé traveled from Stockholm to Brussels last month before heading to the UK, where she performed in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Sunderland before playing five dates at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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