Stockholm - Market turmoil impacted the net asset value of Investor AB, the investment company with key stakes in leading Swedish blue-chip companies, the group said Tuesday.

For the third quarter 2008, the group reported a loss in its net asset value of 8.8 billion kronor (1.2 billion dollars), compared to a loss of 7.8 billion kronor for the corresponding business period in 
2007.

At the end of September the net asset value was 130 billion kronor compared to 155 billion kronor at the end of 2007.

Stockholm - The 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded Monday to Paul Krugman of the United States, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced.

Stockholm - Sweden is soon to present legislation aimed at shoring up confidence in the finance sector, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Monday.

At a joint news conference with Finance Minister Anders Borg, Reinfeldt also welcomed a weekend agreement by Eurozone countries to solve the financial turmoil.

Reinfeldt told reporters that the deal "was very heartening. It is a first important step to secure financial stability in Sweden."

The legislation would likely be presented later this week.

Sweden, a member of the 27-nation European Union, has not introduced the joint European curency, the euro.

Stockholm - Sweden's central bank said Wednesday it was to cut its interest rate by 0.50 percentage points to 4.25 per cent.

The cut was to take effect October 15, the Riksbank said, adding that the move was part of a coordinated measure with five other central banks.

The bank's board of governors noted that "economic growth in Sweden is slowing down and that inflationary pressures are diminishing as an effect of the financial crisis."

The Riksbank said it was to revise its forecast for both inflation and GDP, and noted that "the labour market is also showing clearer signs of weakening."

Stockholm - Volvo, the Swedish carmaker owned by Ford, is to shed a further 3,400 jobs mainly in its home base, the company said Wednesday, citing weaker sales in Europe and the United States.

The new cuts would affect some 2,000 blue-collar workers and 700 white-collar employees in Sweden, the company, which is owned by US carmaker Ford, said.

Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday congratulated Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine for their discovery of the retrovirus that causes AIDS.

After extending his "heartiest congratulations," in his own name and that of the nation, Sarkozy noted, in a statement released by his office, that it was the first Nobel Prize for Medicine awarded to a French team since 1980.

"The discovery of the AIDS virus at the beginning of the 1980s marked the start of a period of intense research that led to the creation of anti-retrovirus treatments," Sarkozy said. "Today millions of people around the world are benefiting from these treatments."