Bad Bunny concerts resulted in hotel and restaurant inflation

Restaurants and hotels were the biggest contributors to inflation in May, the month in which Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny made his debut in Portugal.

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), this was the “product category” that contributed most to the 0.2% monthly increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), exceeding gasoline and diesel, which even had a negative contribution last month.

“The category with the largest positive contribution to the monthly variation rate of the total index was restaurants and accommodation services (class 11), with a variation of 1.9% (4.4% in the previous month and 2.5% in May 2025),” reads the highlight published this Friday by the INE.

“Conversely, the category with the largest negative contribution to the monthly CPI variation rate was food and non-alcoholic beverages (category 1), with a variation of -0.3% (0.9% in the previous month and 0.8% in May 2025),” it adds.

In two concerts that quickly sold out and brought together around 120,000 fans of the singer, about half of whom were foreigners, comparisons with Taylor Swift, who generated a 22% increase in hotel revenue, a 34% increase in revenue from foreign cards, and a 49% increase in foreign transactions, were inevitable.

A breakdown of the figures shows that at the Leisure, Recreation, Sports and Culture level, the index rose 0.62% compared to 0.44% in the previous month — April being the month in which Easter was celebrated and also another highly anticipated concert took place — that of Rosalía. In year-on-year terms, May 2025 saw a contraction of 0.09%.

In general terms, compared to the previous month, the CPI increased by 0.2% in May, one tenth less than initially predicted, while in April the variation compared to March was 1.3%. “Excluding unprocessed food and energy products, the CPI variation was 0.4% (1% in the previous month and 0.4% in May 2025),” details the INE (National Institute of Statistics).

In year-on-year terms, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) confirmed this Friday that the inflation rate stood at 3.3%, with the index for energy products rising to 13.1%, that is, 1.4 percentage points above the previous month and one tenth below the initial estimate released at the end of May.

Source: INE; Credits: Live Nation Portugal