Sweden: Beyonce is blamed for keeping inflation high

LONDON –

Swedish consumers now have Beyonce blame their bills, bills, bills.

The chief economist of Danske Bank, the largest bank in neighboring Denmark, said Wednesday that the singer’s decision to kick off her “Renaissance” world tour in Stockholm last month led to a rise in hotel and restaurant prices in the area as tens of thousands of fans flocked to the city.

Michael Grahn estimated that the extra demand from Beyonce’s fans, collectively known as the BeyHive, was responsible for two-thirds of the price increases in the hospitality industry in May.

This in turn contributed to a more modest decline in headline inflation than expected. Annual consumer price inflation fell to 9.7% in May from 10.5% in May, official statistics show, while economists polled by Reuters had predicted a stronger slowdown to 9.4%.

“[That’s] definitely not normal,” Grahn told CNN. “Stars come here all the time, [but] we rarely see such effects.”

Grahn said many fans had traveled to Sweden for the two sold-out concerts in the country because tickets were relatively cheaper than elsewhere and a “very weak” Swedish currency boosted their purchasing power.

Some American fans of Beyonce told BuzzFeed News in February that they had secured tickets to the singer’s Swedish concerts at a huge discount on her shows in the US.

Grahn noted that “there are a limited number of hotels and accommodation in the Stockholm area”, adding that hotels up to 50 kilometers (31 mi) from the capital have increased their prices as a result.

Still, he expects the Beyonce effect to be short-lived, with hotel prices down probably to fall over June.

Bruce Springsteen will play three shows in the Swedish city of Gothenburg later this month, which could put upward pressure on prices, Grahn said, but that’s not very likely.

“What we saw with Beyonce was kind of special.”