US superstar Beyoncé is said to be behind the surprisingly high inflation that occurred in Sweden last month.
Inflation in the country fell below 10 per cent in May, according to official statistics, but was still higher than expected. While a decrease in electricity and food prices contributed to the lower inflation rate of 9.7 per cent (down from 10.5 per cent in April), Statistics Sweden said that costs of hotel and restaurant visits rose.
Michael Grahn, an economist at Danske Bank, believes that the launch of Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour in Stockholm on 10 May could be behind it.
“I wouldn’t... blame Beyoncé for [the] high inflation print, but her performance and global demand to see her perform in Sweden apparently added a little to it,” he told the BBC.
Last month, Visit Stockholm described the boom in tourism in the country as the “Beyoncé effect”.
According to the agency’s press officer, Birgitta Palmér, visitors from US, Germany, and the UK accounted for the largest number of bookings in the city in May, apparently taking advantage of lower ticket prices and the weak Swedish currency.
Grahn told the Wall Street Journal that this effect was “very rare” and he expected the situation to settle by next month. However, another economist warned that Sweden could experience a similar increase when rock star Bruce Springsteen performs three shows in Gothenburg in June, the Financial Times reports.
In her four out of five-star review of Beyoncé’s Cardiff concert, The Independent’s Nicole Vassell wrote that “in her forties”, the singer “is doing some of the best singing of her life.
“Beyoncé literally rides her disco horse into the distance, leaving in her wake the thousands left marvelling at her musical and visual voyage they’ve been a part of,” she added.
The singer’s Blue Ivy Carter joined her mother on stage during her show in Paris on 26 May.
Blue Ivy wore a pair of metallic silver cargo-style trousers and a high-necked sequin top with matching combat boots, finished with a pair of sunglasses.
Beyoncé’s tour consists of 50 shows worldwide, which are scheduled to run until September.
