Hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the world flock to England to watch Taylor Swift, causing the country to temporarily postpone lowering interest rates because the economy benefits.

CNBC news agency said that singer Taylor Swift’s current Eras Tour is likely to cause the Bank of England (BoE) to postpone interest rate cuts because the economy will benefit by an additional 1.27 billion USD.

Specifically, Taylor’s above tour will take place in August 2024 in London, thereby attracting hundreds of thousands of fans to attend and stimulate consumption.

This can boost the economy, slow down inflation and cause the BoE to postpone interest rate cuts as expected until September 2024.

“We still predict the possibility of the BoE lowering interest rates in August 2024, but fluctuations in the inflation rate may cause the British government to postpone it until September 2024,” TD Securities’ report stated.

A survey of 65 economic experts by Reuters news agency previously showed that it is likely that the BoE will cut interest rates, currently at a 16-year high of 5.25%, in August to boost growth.

However, after the news that Taylor Swift was about to perform in London in August, many analytical reports predicted the possibility of delaying the BoE’s interest rate cut deadline. This singer’s popularity and ability to influence the inflation index in August may cause the British government to reconsider its plan.

“An increase in hotel prices and tourism-related products and services during the event could cause service inflation to increase by 30 percentage points and boost the economy,” TD Securities reported. shows.

Swiftflation power

In fact, the power to stimulate consumption from Taylor Swift’s tours has precedent, so much so that the terms “Swiftflation” (Taylor Swift and Inflation) or “Swiftonomics” (Taylor Swift and Economics) were coined. life.

These tours often stimulate consumption, increasing tourists booking hotels, flights, restaurants and countless local businesses.

In Edinburgh, England, where Taylor Swift began her tour in this country in early June 2024, the economy earned 77 million pounds, equivalent to 98 million USD, from the above event.

Barclays’ report even estimates that the entire British economy could receive an additional 1 billion pounds, equivalent to 1.27 billion USD, thanks to Taylor Swift’s tour.

According to Reuters news agency, rising inflation has affected purchasing power in many product and service sectors, but perhaps this is not true for fans.

Ticket prices for concerts are still increasing to such an extent that even economic experts are surprised at the “crazy” level of fans with their idols.

Despite the difficult economic situation and rising inflation, fans around the world still do everything they can to buy concert tickets for their idols.

Names like Taylor Swift, Beyonce and BlackPink have taken social media by storm with countless predictions of sky-high costs for their concerts. From travel expenses, accommodation, cheerleading items, fashion to other amounts of money to support their idols and have fun during the days of the event.

“People are willing to spend a lot of money on their idols because they know they will be satisfied with these concert programs, and moreover, no one knows whether the idol will return to do similar events in the future or not.” no,” said Mario Ihieme, an avid Beyonce fan in London, England.

Idols save the economy

Reuters news agency compares concert events of Beyonce or Taylor Swift to Beyflation or Swiftflation to refer to the impact of these programs on the economy.

Not only BlackPink, a series of names such as Bruno Mars, Coldplay or Backstreet Boys are also holding their own music shows, attracting fans to take out their wallets.

“If it weren’t for concerts, I wouldn’t have traveled this year,” Mr. Fairuz Zahari from Malaysia said when traveling to many countries to watch music shows, most recently Ed Sheeran’s in Australia. .

Similarly in India, Live Entertainment director Owen Roncon said fans are extremely happy even though they still have to pay large sums of money for quality concert events.

“The average price for the ‘Backstreet Boys DNA World Tour’ concert in India has been pushed up to 8,000 Rupees (98 USD), much higher than the original price,” Mr. Owen said with a smile.

An Evenbrite survey in the US showed that 80% of consumers this year want to go out more even though fans will have to spend more money on concerts.

Even Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino said that concert ticket sales increased by 41% in the first quarter of 2023, and ticket prices increased by a double-digit rate.

In the UK, about 150,000 fans paid 340 pounds, equivalent to 431 USD/ticket to attend the June concert at Glastonbury featuring Elton John and many other artists.

Director Beth Cook of a media agency from Leeds-UK said she plans to spend 100 pounds per day for 5 days attending this concert and that cost is completely worth it.

“When the pandemic happened, I think everyone was in low spirits and we really missed events like this, when people happily gathered together. Now things are getting better, people with money “I will come to events like this because they are great,” Ms. Cook admitted.

Worry about inflation

However, what many economic experts worry about is the impact on accommodation, travel and other expenses of fans for their idols, or for this short trip. Inflation is quite high at present.

On the contrary, some other experts believe that the above events stimulate consumer and economic demand, while not unduly affecting the general inflation situation.

In the UK, prices for entertainment-cultural activities increased by 6.8% from the beginning of the year until May 2023, the highest level in the past 30 years. The main reason given is the explosion of cultural and music events, driving up costs and ticket prices on the market.

However, a spokesperson for the British Statistics Office (ONS) said that because there are artists performing every month, it is difficult to quantify the specific impact of this segment on inflation as well as compare between concerts. together.

“With inflation in the UK, the pressure of these concerts will prolong the price increase,” warned UBS Global Wealth Management chief economist Paul Donovan, referring to Harry Styles’ concert series in June. This.

General Secretary Andy Genster of Pollstar newspaper, which tracks music events, said it was “ridiculous” to consider shows like Beyonce’s will affect inflation. Mr. Genster cited evidence that despite rising ticket prices, inflation in the US from May 2022, at 8.6%, has not increased much so far.

Meanwhile, with extremely high demand from music programs after the pandemic, TD Cowen director Stephen Glagola believes that ticket prices for these concerts on the secondary market will increase on average by 75-100% compared to at original price to the frenzy of fans.

Reuters news agency said the US Department of Labor does not measure the impact of concerts on overall inflation, but the inflation index due to live performance events is currently 2.6 percentage points higher than the inflation rate. major development in the US.

Foolhardy

According to Reuters, the consumer stimulation of music events not only boosts the tourism industry but also creates a concert ticket speculation market, attracting crazy cash flows into the economy.

Buying and reselling concert tickets has pushed prices up to unimaginable levels, but many fans are even crazier to accept these high prices.

On the Stubhub website specializing in ticket sales, the cheapest price for Taylor Swift’s July 2023 concert in Seattle, USA has been speculated up to 1,200 USD, while the ticket price for the show in Mexico is 500 USD/ticket.

“I had to use 9 phone numbers for 3 different accounts on Ticketmaster, along with 3 different credit cards to hunt for tickets,” said Joel Barrios, a Beyonce fan in Los Angeles. spent up to 7,000 USD on tickets for 3 concerts in the US, including himself and his friends, and another 6,650 USD for a few other concerts in Europe, not including other expenses.

According to HITC, the price of resale tickets on the secondary market for BlackPink’s “Born Pink” program in Los Angeles, USA can range from 876-1,729 USD/person.

Another case is that Ms. Carolina Candelas had an easier time breathing when she only had to spend 92 Euros, equivalent to 101 USD for Beyonce’s program when traveling with her family to Barcelona.

Clearly, performance events are becoming a gold mine for both the local economy and ticket speculators. Even idols like Taylor Swift can influence government decisions because of their charisma.