Beyoncé has been blamed for keeping inflation stubbornly high in Sweden after more than 40,000 fans flocked to Stockholm last month to watch the singer begin her world tour. 

Economists said the artist, who launched her Renaissance tour in the Swedish capital with two sold-out concerts, helped to drive a surge in hotel and accommodation costs.

Beyoncé’s first solo tour since 2016 led to a big surge in American tourists descending on the Scandinavian city to take advantage of the weak currency and cheaper tickets.

Official figures showed inflation, as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI), stood at 9.7pc in May, down from 10.5pc in April.

Sweden Statistics added that core inflation, which strips out volatile movements in energy and food, also stood at a higher-than-expected rate of 8.2pc.

Michael Grahn, chief economist of Danske Bank in Sweden, estimated that the “Beyoncé effect” added “at least” 0.2 percentage points to the headline rate.

He said: “We can see that through ticket prices in Sweden for these types of events which rose by some 6 pc month on month. 

“The main impact on inflation, however, came from the fact that all fans needed somewhere to stay and caused hotel prices to rise by 12pc on average in May. Basically, her fans vacuumed up hotels around Stockholm with a radius of some 40 miles, bidding up hotel rates.”

Big sporting events such as the World Cup and Olympics are often linked with boosting economic activity. Mr Grahn said the impact from two concerts on inflation was “very rare”.

Sweden’s Riksbank was one of the last western central banks to start lifting interest rates, only moving away from zero last May. 

The krona has recently been trading near record lows against the euro, which has complicated efforts to drive down inflation as prices continue to rise far faster than the central bank’s 2pc inflation target.