The start of Beyonce's world tour was an event so big in Sweden that it produced a bump in the inflation rate, according to Danske Bank's chief economist in the country. Michael Grahn says the star's two concerts in Stockholm last month added around 0.2 percentage points to inflation that month, with tens of thousands of fans paying high prices for hotels and restaurants as well as concert tickets, Politico reports. "It's quite astonishing for a single event. We haven't seen this before," he tells the Financial Times. The concerts pulled in fans from around the world, and with the dollar very strong against the Swedish krona, the tickets were somewhat of a bargain for American fans, the BBC reports.
According to Statistics Sweden, year-on-year inflation, excluding energy, rose 8.2% in May, slightly more than economists had predicted, Bloomberg reports. "We expect this upside surprise to be reversed in June as prices on hotels and tickets reverse back to normal," Grahn says. Andreas Wallstrom at Swedbank, however, says Bruce Springsteen's three concerts in Gothenburg next month might have a similar effect, the FT reports. (More Beyonce stories.)
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