Is Beyoncé to blame for Swedish inflation?
In most countries it is the war in Ukraine or challenging supply chains that is keeping inflation high. But Sweden believes there is another cause for its higher-than-expected prices: Beyoncé.
The American pop star kicked off her Renaissance world tour in Stockholm last month. And the country’s chief economist, Michael Grahn, has suggested that interest in the concerts led to such a spike in demand for hotels and restaurants that this may have translated to sudden price increases.
Sweden reported higher-than-expected inflation of 9.7% in May. This was the first time the rate had fallen below 10% in six months, with Grahn suggesting the concerts “probably” accounted for 0.2 of the 0.3 percentage points added to inflation by hospitality prices.
Poor paternity pay leaves fathers with a tough choice
Nearly a third of fathers in the UK did not take any paternity leave after the birth of their child, according to data from a YouGov survey commissioned by the campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, the Centre for Progressive Policy and Women in Data.
While most fathers wanted to take more time off to assist with newborn parenting, the study found, they felt unable to due to financial concerns.
The UK’s statutory paternity leave is the least generous in Europe; men are entitled to the equivalent of just 0.4 weeks off at full pay. It is worth noting that around a quarter of men in the UK aren’t eligible for any paternity leave or pay to begin with, either due to being self-employed or having been with a company for less than six months.
Our poor parental leave provision, many argue, is compounding the gender pay gap and denying willing men a more active role in raising children.
Vodafone and Three UK propose merger
Vodafone and the owner of Three have agreed a deal to combine their British telecoms networks in a move that would, according to the companies, create a mobile operator better able to compete with market leaders BT Group and Virgin Media.
The deal would see the combine group take 24% of the market, behind BT Group (which owns EE and BT Mobile) and Virgin Media O2 (which owns Virgin Media, O2 and giffgaff).
The new venture would be majority-owned by Vodafone with 51% of the equity. After three years, Vodafone has an option to buy out Three’s share. The merger is subject to regulatory approval, with the Competition Markets Authority likely to investigate whether it might lead to price rises in the market by reducing the ‘big four’ to the ‘big three’.
Smaller FTSE businesses fall behind on gender targets
Significant numbers of UK-listed firms outside the FTSE 350 are failing to meet board gender targets, a new study by Women on Boards has found.
In 2016, the Hampton-Alexander Review set a target for each FTSE firm to have a third of its board seats held by women. However, the researchers found that 16% of FTSE All-Share companies and 40% AIM listed firms are still failing to hit this ratio.
While there are currently no all-male boards in the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250, there are a total of 112 smaller listed businesses without a single female director.
