(New York) The “Taylor Swift” effect, a pop star whose record-breaking tour of the United States, has stimulated the American economy in recent months, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank said Thursday of New York, John Williams.
“There’s definitely a Taylor Swift effect on consumer spending because people have spent on the concert, the hotel, it’s all been a big phenomenon,” the news channel executive said. Yorkist of the American central bank, during an interview on Bloomberg TV.
With 146 dates in sold-out stadiums, Taylor Swift, on tour since March in the United States and Mexico, should reach a billion dollars in revenue. She will continue her concerts in Argentina, Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, until the end of next year.
May was even the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since the start of the pandemic, “largely thanks to an influx of visitors to Taylor Swift concerts in the city,” previously reported an industry official quoted in the Fed’s Beige Book, a survey published in early July.
Overall, “the demand is strong. We’re seeing this rotation [of spending] from goods to services that we were talking about a year ago. People are traveling more, going to restaurants, going to shows,” detailed John Williams.
In fact, it is now the prices of services that are driving inflation upwards, while the prices of goods are falling.
The Fed, in the maneuver to slow inflation, has raised its rates 11 times since March 2022, in order to increase the cost of credit, and thus slow consumption and investment. In order, ultimately, to ease the pressure on prices.
Its next meeting will take place on September 19-20, and market participants overwhelmingly expect rates to remain at the current level of 5.25-5.50%, the highest in 22 years.
John Williams did not say whether he favored holding rates steady or raising them again, only pointing out that “monetary policy is in a very good position because it is adopting a restrictive policy that is producing the desired effects, at namely a better balance between supply and demand”.
The New York Fed president said inflation was “going in the right direction,” but he said the central bank remained on guard, asking the question: “Are we restrictive enough? »
