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STOCKHOLM/HELSINKI, Oct 17 (Reuters) - A Baltic Sea telecom cable connecting Sweden and Estonia was damaged at roughly the same time as a Finnish-Estonian pipeline and cable were earlier this month, but remains operational, Sweden's civil defence minister said on Tuesday. The damage to the Swedish-Estonian cable was sustained outside the territorial waters and exclusive economic zone of Sweden, the country's civil defence minister, Carl-Oskar Bohlin said, and the cable had continued to function since then. VESSELS IN AREAEurope and NATO have become increasingly concerned about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure around and under the Baltic Sea. The latest incidents follow explosions in September 2022 that ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea and cut Europe's supply of Russian gas. Finland said on Oct. 8 that the Balticconnector subsea gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Estonia had been damaged in what may have been a deliberate act.

Persons: Carl, Oskar Bohlin, Arelion, Ewa Skoog Haslum, NBI, Atomflot, Ulf Kristersson, Nerijus Adomaitis, Niklas Pollard, Simon Johnson, Marie, Gleb Stolyarov, Andrew Gray, Gwladys, Bill Berkrot, Mark Potter, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Estonian Economic Affairs, Communications Ministry, NATO, Reuters, National Bureau of Investigation, NewNew Shipping, Sweden's, Joint Expeditionary Force, Marie Mannes, Thomson Locations: STOCKHOLM, HELSINKI, Sweden, Estonia, Finnish, Estonian, Russian, Swedish, Finland, Hiiumaa, NATO, Baltic, Europe, Rosatom, Oslo, Stockholm, Brussels

☆ U.S. supports Finland, Estonia as it probes Baltic Sea pipe burst, says Blinken
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The picture provided by The Finnish Border Guard shows Finnish Border Guard's offshore patrol vessel Turva guarding on October 11, 2023 at sea near the place where damaged Balticconnector gas pipeline is pinpointed at the Gulf of Finland. Lehtikuva/FINNISH BORDER GUARD via REUTERS/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsOct 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday the United States would support Finland and Estonia as they probe damage to a gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable under the Baltic Sea. Location of damaged gas pipeEarlier on Thursday, Finnish intelligence said it could not rule out the possibility of a "state actor" being involved in damaging the infrastructure. "Involvement of a state actor in this job cannot be ruled out," Finnish Security Intelligence Service Director Antti Pelttari told reporters. A chief investigator also said that it currently looked like the damage was caused by "mechanical force", not an explosion.

Persons: Antony Blinken, Blinken, Finland's Gasgrid, Antti Pelttari, Elviira, Niklas Pollard, Gwladys, Terje Solsvik, Mark Potter, Deborah Kyvrikosaios Organizations: Finnish Border Guard, GUARD, REUTERS, NATO, NATO Allies, Security Intelligence, Thomson Locations: of Finland, States, Finland, Estonia, Baltic, Brussels, NATO Allies Finland

STOCKHOLM, Oct 9 (Reuters) - American economic historian Claudia Goldin won the 2023 Nobel economics prize for her work examining wage inequality between men and women, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday. "This year's Laureate in the Economic Sciences, Claudia Goldin, provided the first comprehensive account of women's earnings and labour market participation through the centuries," the prize-giving body said in a statement. Goldin, who in 1990 became the first woman to be tenured at the Harvard economics department, is only the third woman to win the Nobel economics prize. "Claudia Goldin's discoveries have vast societal implications," said Randi Hjalmarsson, member of the Economic Prize committee. As with the other Nobel prizes, the vast majority of the economics awards have gone to men.

Persons: Claudia Goldin, Alfred Nobel, Goldin, Hans Ellegren, Claudia Goldin's, Randi Hjalmarsson, Jakob Svensson, Friedrich August von Hayek, Milton Friedman, Paul Krugman, Ben Bernanke, Elinor Ostrom, Esther Duflo, Simon Johnson, Mark John, Niklas Pollard, Johan Ahlander, Terje Solsvik, Catherine Evans Organizations: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sveriges, Economic Sciences, Harvard, Pew Research, Commission, Social, Thomson Locations: STOCKHOLM, COVID, Norwegian, Iranian, United States, Europe, U.S

サマリー企業 Fosse is one of the world's most performed playwrightsAuthor was among bookies' favourites to winFirst Norwegian to win literature prize since 1928STOCKHOLM, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Norwegian author and dramatist Jon Fosse won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable," the award-giving body said on Thursday. The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 11 million Swedish crowns (about $1 million). Fosse is the fourth Norwegian to win the Nobel Prize for literature, but the first since 1928. Alongside the peace prize, literature has often drawn the most attention, and controversy, thrusting lesser known authors into the global spotlight as well as lifting book sales for well-established literary super stars. Over the years, the literature prize has also picked winners well beyond the novelist tradition, including playwrights, historians, philosophers and poets, even breaking new ground with the award to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 2016.

Persons: サマリー企業, bookies, Jon Fosse, Anders Olsson, " Olsson, Fosse, Claude Régy's, andre namnet, Academy's Olsson, Alfred Nobel, Bob Dylan, Simon Johnson, Niklas Pollard, Johan Ahlander, Terje Solsvik, Angus MacSwan 私 Organizations: Swedish Academy, Norwegian Salvation Army, NRK Locations: Norwegian, STOCKHOLM, Haugesund, Norway's, Paris, Denmark, Swedish, Stockholm, Oslo

[1/7] Hans Ellegren (centre), Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announces the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry during a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, October 4, 2023. The more than century-old prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is worth 11 million Swedish crowns ($1 million). Earlier on Wednesday, the academy appeared to have inadvertently published the names of the three scientists before the official announcement. In 1993, Bawendi revolutionised the production of quantum dots, made up of clusters ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand atoms. The third of this year's crop of awards, the chemistry Nobel follows those for medicine and physics announced earlier this week.

Persons: Hans Ellegren, Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, Alexei Ekimov, Bawendi, Johan Aqvist, that's, Ekimov, Brus, Alfred Nobel, Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, Barry Sharpless, Niklas Pollard, Simon Johnson, Johan Ahlander, Ludwig Burger, Terje Solsvik, Anna Ringstrom, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, Columbia University, Nanocrystals Technology, AT, Bell Labs, U.S, Vavilov, Optical Institute, Nanocrystals Technology Inc, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson Locations: Stockholm, Sweden, STOCKHOLM, United States, Paris, France, Tunisia, Soviet Union, Swedish, Frankfurt, Oslo

Only the fifth woman to win a Nobel physics prize, French-born L'Huillier works at Lund University in Sweden, while Agostini, who was also born in France, is a emeritus professor at Ohio State University in the United States. Agostini and Krausz then demonstrated how this could be used to create shorter light pulses than previously possible. These experiments all showed that attosecond pulses could be observed and measured, and could be used in new experiments. While the award for peace can take the limelight, the physics prize has also often taken centre stage with winners such as Albert Einstein and awards for science that has fundamentally changed how we see the world. Announced on consecutive weekdays in early October, the physics prize announcement will be followed by ones for chemistry, literature, peace and economics, the latter a later addition to the original line-up.

Persons: Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, Anne L'Huillier, Eva Olsson, Krausz, L'Huillier, Agostini, Emmanuel Macron, Hans Ellegren, Mats Larsson, Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman, Alfred Nobel, Albert Einstein, Niklas Pollard, Simon Johnson, Johan Ahlander, Terje Solsvik, Elizabeth Pineau, Ayhan Uyanik, Christine Uyanik, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Michaela Cabrera, Alexandra Hudson, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Reuters, Max Planck, Quantum Optics, Lund University, Ohio State University, Royal Academy of Sciences, Thomson Locations: STOCKHOLM, Hungarian, Garching, Germany, French, Sweden, France, United States, Stockholm, Austria, Paris, COVID, Oslo, Krisztina, Budapest, Amsterdam

And I told her that many, many scientists work very, very hard," Kariko added. BioNTech said in June that about 1.5 billion people across the world had received its mRNA shot, co-developed with Pfizer (PFE.N). [1/11]Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman win the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden October 2, 2023. The medicine prize kicks off this year's Nobel awards with the remaining five to be unveiled in coming days. The prizes, first handed out in 1901, were created by Swedish dynamite inventor and wealthy businessman Alfred Nobel.

Persons: Weissman, Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman, Kariko, BioNTech, Rickard Sandberg, Susan Francia, immunologist, ”, Sir Andrew Pollard, Alfred Nobel, Swede Svante Paabo, Alexander Fleming, Karl Landsteiner, Niklas Pollard, Johan Ahlander, Ludwig Burger, Terje Solsvik, Andrew Cawthorne Organizations: Medicine, Nobel, Sweden's Karolinska Institute, University of Szeged, University of Pennsylvania, Pfizer, Karolinska Institute, TT News Agency, REUTERS Acquire, Boston University, Oxford University, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Thomson Locations: STOCKHOLM, COVID, Hungary, Pennsylvania, Szeged, U.S, Stockholm, Sweden, Frankfurt, Krisztina, Budapest, Oslo

[1/2] A police officer on a Segway patrols Sweden's parliament Riksdagen as the terror threat level in Sweden is raised to four on a five-point scale, in Stockholm, Sweden, August 17, 2023. There has been widespread condemnation from many parts of the Muslim world, with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging severe punishment for those responsible and saying Sweden was in battle mode against the Muslim world. "Sweden has gone from being considered a legitimate target for terrorist attacks to being considered a prioritised target," SAPO head Charlotte von Essen told a news conference. MILITARY ALERTThe Swedish armed forces also said they were raising the terrorism threat level for operations. Britain and the United States have warned nationals against going to Sweden due to possible terrorist attacks amid protests there and in neighbouring Denmark over the Koran burnings.

Persons: Riksdagen, Fredrik Sandberg, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Charlotte von Essen, von Essen, Simon Johnson, Johan Ahlander Terje Solsvik, Louise Rasmussen, Niklas Pollard, Andrew Cawthorne Organizations: TT, Agency, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, Iranian, Islamic, Thomson Locations: Sweden, Stockholm, Rights STOCKHOLM, Denmark, Swedish, Britain, United States, Uzbek

☆ Norway wealth fund posts $143 bln profit as AI surge lifts tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A general view of the Norwegian central bank, where Norway's sovereign wealth fund is situated, in Oslo, Norway, March 6, 2018. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsARENDAL, Norway, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Norway's wealth fund, the world's largest single stock market investor, posted a profit of 1,501 billion crowns ($143 billion) in the first half of the year, driven by strong equity markets and a weak crown currency, the fund said on Tuesday. "The fund's equity investments had a strong first half after a weak 2022. The $1.4 trillion fund, which invests the Norwegian state's revenues from oil and gas production, owns on average 1.5% of all listed stocks worldwide. ($1 = 10.5224 Norwegian crowns)Reuters GraphicsReporting by Gwladys Fouche; writing by Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Niklas PollardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Gwladys, Gwladys Fouche, Nerijus, Niklas Pollard Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Equity, Technology, Thomson Locations: Norwegian, Oslo, Norway, Rights ARENDAL

Nokia and rival Ericsson (ERICb.ST) have been hit by slowing orders from customers, mostly in their high-margin North American markets. The results come after Nokia last week cut its annual sales and profit margin outlook and Ericsson reported a big fall in quarterly profit. Comparable operating profit in the second quarter fell to 626 million euros ($702.37 million) from 714 million euros last year, but beat market estimates. The decline in North American markets was somewhat offset by India but with a lower margin. Nokia made gains with Indian operators, particularly with the likes of Reliance Jio Infocomm, which was dominated by Samsung for 4G, he said.

Persons: Pekka Lundmark, Lundmark, Supantha Mukherjee, Niklas Pollard, Josephine Mason Organizations: Nokia, Ericsson, Apple, Samsung, 4G, Thomson Locations: STOCKHOLM, Finnish, India, North America, Stockholm

☆ Factbox: Denied a NATO invitation, Ukraine still reaps rewards at summit
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

VILNIUS, July 12 (Reuters) - NATO leaders at this week's summit in Vilnius said Ukraine should be able to join the military alliance at some point in the future but dashed Kyiv's hopes for an immediate invitation. Below are some of the main commitments pledged to Ukraine in connection with the summit. In a declaration, NATO countries also pledged its support for Ukraine for "as long as it takes". Britain will also launch a project through NATO to establish a medical rehabilitation centre for Ukrainian soldiers. NORWEGIAN SUPPORTNorway will increase its military support to Ukraine by 2.5 billion crowns ($239 million) this year to 10 billion.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Niklas Pollard, John Irish, Sabine Siebold, Andrew Gray, Justyna, Alex Richardson Organizations: NATO, Ukraine Council, Ukraine, France, Challenger, GERMAN PATRIOTS German, Thomson Locations: VILNIUS, Vilnius, Ukraine, Russia, NATO, Kyiv, Moscow, Britain, Ukrainian, Denmark, Romania, Norway

Zelenskiy said: "Today there are security guarantees for Ukraine on the way to NATO...that shall be further extended through arrangements with our key partners. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the G7 move misguided and "potentially very dangerous" for the West to give Ukraine security guarantees, which it said would infringe on Russia's own security. The declaration said the G7 nations would begin bilateral talks with Ukraine immediately. "We will work with Ukraine on an enhanced package of security commitments and arrangements in case of future aggression to enable Ukraine to defend its territory and sovereignty," the G7 said. Germany has already said that it would initially provide 12 billion euros in military support for Ukraine through 2032, including 3.2 billion euros for 2023.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Joe Biden, Zelenskiy, Dmitry Peskov, Ben Wallace, Andrew Gray, Steve Holland, Sabine Siebold, Alex Richardson, Mark Heinrich Our Organizations: NATO, REUTERS, Kremlin, Wednesday, Ukraine, Soviet Union, European Union, White, U.S, Kyiv, Israel, British, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Vilnius, Lithuania, VILNIUS, Russia, Moscow, Britain, France, Germany, United States, Soviet, Japan, Canada, Italy, Washington, Israel, Kyiv

VILNIUS, July 11 (Reuters) - A coalition of 11 nations will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets in August in Denmark, and a training centre will be set up in Romania, officials said on Tuesday on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Lithuania. NATO members Denmark and the Netherlands have been leading international efforts to train pilots as well as support staff, maintain aircraft and ultimately enable the supply of F-16s to Ukraine in its war with Russia. Kyiv, which has launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces, has repeatedly called for Western countries to supply aircraft and train its pilots to fly them, to successfully counter Moscow's aerial dominance. That's why for us it is very important that this fighter jet coalition starts up," Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told reporters. "I hope - I am an optimist - that after six months we will see results," he said.

Persons: Troels Lund Poulsen, Oleksii Reznikov, Niklas Pollard, Justyna Organizations: NATO, Russian, Ukrainian Defence, Thomson Locations: VILNIUS, Ukrainian, Denmark, Romania, Lithuania, Netherlands, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Slovakia

☆ NATO's Stoltenberg says Turkey agrees to move ahead with Sweden's NATO bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

VILNIUS, July 10 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to forward to parliament Sweden's bid to join the NATO military alliance, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, on the eve of a NATO summit in Vilnius. Stoltenberg declined to give a date for when Sweden's accession would be ratified by the Turkish parliament, the grand national assembly, which would decide on the exact timing. Applications to the alliance must be approved by all NATO members and while Finland's was given the go-ahead in April, Turkey and Hungary have held off on clearing Sweden's bid. Stockholm has been working hard at its bid ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, together with the United States and its allies, urging Turkey to abandon its opposition. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday that Budapest would not block Sweden's NATO membership ratification.

Persons: Tayyip Erdogan, Sweden's, Jens Stoltenberg, Erdogan, Stoltenberg, Finland's, Viktor Orban's, John Irish, Sabine Siebold, Johan Ahlander, Anna Ringstrom, Justyna Pawlak, Niklas Pollard Organizations: NATO, Kurdistan Workers Party, Thomson Locations: VILNIUS, Vilnius, Sweden, Turkish, Finland, Ukraine, Turkey, Hungary, Stockholm, United States, Hungarian, Budapest

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year, abandoning their policies of military non-alignment that had lasted through the decades of the Cold War in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While Finland's NATO membership was green-lighted in April, Turkey and Hungary have yet to clear Sweden's bid. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson react during a meeting, on the eve of a NATO summit, in Vilnius, Lithuania July 10, 2023. "This has been a good day for Sweden," Kristersson told reporters, saying the joint statement on Monday represented "a very big step" toward the final ratification of Sweden's membership of NATO. After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday that Budapest would now no longer block Sweden's NATO membership ratification, Turkish approval would remove the last hurdle for Swedish accession to NATO, applications for which must be approved by all members.

Persons: Tayyip Erdogan, Sweden's, Erdogan, Jens Stoltenberg, Ulf Kristersson, Yves Herman / Pool Erdogan, Kristersson, Monday, Stoltenberg, Viktor Orban's, Joe Biden, Niklas Pollard, Andrius, Anna Ringstrom, Johan Ahlander, Ezgi, John Irish, William Maclean, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: NATO, Kurdistan Workers Party, EU, REUTERS, European Union, Finland's, Hungarian, Lockheed Martin Corp, Pawlak, Thomson Locations: VILNIUS, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, Hungary, Stockholm, Lithuanian, Vilnius, Swedish, Madrid, Ankara, United States, Lithuania, Turkey's, European, Budapest, Washington, Istanbul

☆ Swedish PM says Vilnius summit natural time for NATO bid finale
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] U.S. President Joe Biden and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson meet in the Oval Office, at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 5, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstJuly 5 (Reuters) - Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Wednesday after meeting U.S. President Joe Biden that the two leaders agreed that the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius was a "natural time" to finalise the Nordic country's bid to join the alliance. "We both realize that the NATO summit in Vilnius in a week is a very natural time to finish this. But we both also know that only Turkey can make Turkish decisions," Kristersson told reporters at the Swedish embassy in Washington. Kristersson met President Biden in Washington to reaffirm U.S. backing for Sweden's NATO application, which is being held up by Turkey and Hungary.

Persons: Joe Biden, Ulf Kristersson, Jonathan Ernst, Kristersson, Biden, Johan Ahlander, Niklas Pollard Organizations: Swedish, White, REUTERS, NATO, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, Swedish, Vilnius, Turkey, Washington, Hungary, Stockholm

☆ Time has come for Turkey to ratify Sweden's NATO bid - Swedish minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

STOCKHOLM, June 21 (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament should begin to ratify Sweden's bid to join NATO because Stockholm has now met its obligations under an accord with Ankara on joining the Western military alliance, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Wednesday. Last year Sweden and Finland both reversed decades of military non-alignment and applied to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Finland joined NATO in April but Turkey continues to block Sweden's membership citing security concerns. This month Ankara said Sweden must crack down on anti-Turkey protests in Stockholm before it can receive the green light to join NATO. Hungary has also still to ratify Sweden's NATO bid.

Persons: Tobias Billstrom, Billstrom, Tayyip Erdogan, Niklas Pollard, Simon Johnson, Gareth Jones Organizations: NATO, Western, Reuters, Kurdistan Workers Party, Sweden's NATO, Thomson Locations: STOCKHOLM, Stockholm, Ankara, Swedish, Sweden, Finland, Ukraine, Turkey, Vilnius, Madrid, Hungary

Erdogan spoke as officials from Turkey, Sweden, Finland and NATO met on Wednesday in Ankara for talks to try to overcome Turkish objections holding up Sweden's NATO membership bid. The parties agreed to continue working on the "prospective concrete steps" for Sweden's NATO membership, the statement said. In justifying its objections to Swedish membership, Turkey has accused Stockholm of harbouring members of Kurdish militant groups it considers to be terrorists. While he was having talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier this month, a similar protest was held in Stockholm, Erdogan said. He added that he also told Stoltenberg Sweden should prevent such actions to secure Turkey's approval for its NATO membership.

Persons: Tayyip Erdogan, Umit, Erdogan, Oscar Stenstrom, Stenstrom, Jens Stoltenberg, Stoltenberg, Huseyin Hayatsever, Simon Johnson, Johan Ahlander, Niklas Pollard, Daren Butler, Nick Macfie, Mark Heinrich Our Organizations: REUTERS, NATO, Wednesday, Turkish, Atlantic Treaty Organization, Kurdistan Workers Party, European Union, Ece Toksabay, Thomson Locations: Ankara, Turkey, ANKARA, Sweden, Stockholm, Azerbaijan, Finland, Madrid, Ukraine, Hungary, extraditions, Stoltenberg Sweden, Vilnius

☆ Factbox: Why Ukraine is bidding for F-16 jets and will it succeed?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WHAT KIND OF FIGHTER JETS COULD UKRAINE GET? Ukraine wants F-16s, which it says are "four or five times" more effective than Soviet-era jets it currently has. However, Polish President Andrzej Duda reiterated on Tuesday that Poland has too few F-16 jets to be able to give any to Ukraine. Britain will not send jets to Ukraine, a spokesperson for Sunak has said, since Britain does not have the F-16s that Ukraine wants. Denmark said in February it was "open" to the idea of sending fighter jets to Ukraine.

☆ Swedish inflation dips more than expected in April, easing cbank worries
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Stripping out volatile energy prices - a measure the central bank is looking closely at - underlying inflation was 8.4% on the year. For headline inflation, analysts had forecast 7.9%, the same as the Riksbank. Underlying inflation was seen by analysts at 8.7% and at 8.6% by the Riksbank. Another quarter-point hike is expected in June or September, before the tightening cycle comes to an end. Policy-makers said they were ready to rethink the plan if price pressures did not fall back as expected.

☆ Handelsbanken scores profit beat as interest income climbs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

STOCKHOLM, April 26 (Reuters) - Swedish bank Handelsbanken (SHBa.ST) reported first-quarter net profit above market expectations on Wednesday on the back of climbing interest income and said its credit quality remained good against a backdrop of heightened uncertainty. Soaring inflation over the past year has seen central banks crank up key rates radically, boosting interest income for banks such as Handelsbanken, but also spurring their own costs and ramping up pressure on their customers and on property prices. The rival of Swedbank (SWEDa.ST), SEB (SEBa.ST) and Nordea (NDAFI.HE) said net profit totalled 6.81 billion Swedish crowns ($661.23 million) versus a year-ago 5.69 billion, topping a mean forecast 6.20 billion, according to Refinitiv estimates. The bank, whose main markets are Sweden, Norway and Britain, said its net interest income, which includes revenues from mortgages, rose to 11.49 billion from a year-ago 8.01 billion, above the 10.89 billion expected by analysts. Handelsbanken said its credit losses edged up to 30 million crowns from only 6 million a year ago, well below the 386 million seen by analysts.

☆ Spotify's monthly active users top 500 million, beat estimate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Supantha Mukherjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The number of monthly active users rose to 515 million in the first quarter, beating Spotify's guidance and analysts' forecast of 500 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Premium subscribers, who account for most of its revenue, rose 15% to 210 million, topping estimates of 206 million. The company forecast monthly active users of 530 million. Spotify last year laid out plans to get one billion users by 2030 and reach $100 billion in annual revenue. Spotify's current-quarter revenue forecast of 3.2 billion euros also missed expectations of 3.26 billion euros.

☆ Ukraine war spurs record global spending on military, Stockholm think tank says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

STOCKHOLM, April 24 (Reuters) - Global military spending rose to a record last year as Russia's war in Ukraine drove the biggest annual increase in expenditure in Europe since the end of the Cold War three decades ago, a leading conflict and armaments think tank said on Monday. World military expenditure rose by 3.7% in real terms in 2022 to $2.24 trillion, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a statement. "As a result, we can reasonably expect military expenditure in Central and Western Europe to keep rising in the years ahead." SIPRI estimated that military aid to Ukraine from the United States accounted for 2.3% of total U.S. military spending in 2022. Though the United States was the world's top spender by far its overall expenditure rose only marginally in real terms.

Volvo, a rival of manufacturers such as Daimler Trucks (DTGGe.DE) and Traton (8TRA.DE), forecast 2023 heavy truck sales in Europe and North America of 320,000 for each region. Handelsbanken analyst Hampus Engellau said the raised truck outlook sent a strong message that Volvo sees the second-half of 2023 as a good market for its trucks. Gothenburg-based Volvo, which also makes construction equipment and engines, said there was pent-up demand to replace aging fleets which had helped boost order intake. Shares in Volvo, one of Sweden's biggest employers, rose 1.2% in morning trade in a flat broader market (.OMXSPI). Volvo is not the only automaker to have had a good quarter.

☆ Sweden's Alecta axes CEO after US bank losses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

OSLO/STOCKHOLM, April 11 (Reuters) - Swedish pension fund Alecta on Tuesday fired its CEO Magnus Billing with immediate effect following the recent announcement of large losses from investments in several U.S. banks. Alecta, Sweden's largest pension fund provider, last month said it had lost 19.6 billion Swedish crowns ($1.87 billion) from its shareholdings in First Republic Bank (FRC.N), Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. "The losses have severely damaged the trust in Alecta's asset management," the company said in a statement. "The board has concluded that Alecta needs new leadership in order to implement the necessary changes within the asset management and re-establish trust." The pension provider last week announced the replacement of its head of stock market asset management.

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