STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Asked if he would ever quit IKEA, 87-year-old founder Ingvar Kamprad told an interviewer last year he “had no time to die”. But his latest step back from the world’s biggest furniture group has pushed a younger generation to the fore.

Kamprad, who founded the business 70 years ago and is one of Europe’s wealthiest men, will leave the board of a major company within the business, Inter IKEA Group, which owns the brand and directs strategy. He had already stepped down as chief executive as long ago as 1986. His youngest son Mathias becomes chairman.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – When Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt celebrated his 45th birthday, his finance minister gave him a framed graph showing the tax burden falling to 45 percent of GDP for the first time in decades. It still hangs in his office.

The gift reflected the celebratory mood of a centre-right government boosting economic growth while reducing taxes and cutting unemployment and sickness benefits, shrinking a welfare state that is among the most generous in the world.

STOCKHOLM, June 2 (Reuters) – When Swedish Prime Minister
Fredrik Reinfeldt celebrated his 45th birthday, his finance
minister gave him a framed graph showing the tax burden falling
to 45 percent of GDP for the first time in decades. It still
hangs in his office.

The gift reflected the celebratory mood of a centre-right
government boosting economic growth while reducing taxes and
cutting unemployment and sickness benefits, shrinking a welfare
state that is among the most generous in the world.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s worst riots in years might benefit a far-right party in elections next year if scenes of immigrants burning cars and smashing up buildings cause voters to rethink their traditional welcome to foreigners.

Even before the week of riots in the poorer neighborhoods of Stockholm, immigration had become a hot political issue, as the number of asylum seekers reached record levels.

STOCKHOLM, May 6 (Reuters) – The catchy tunes, outlandish
costumes and shimmering boots that made ABBA a global phenomenon
all feature in a new museum dedicated to the band, but rumours
the exhibition may presage a reunion by Sweden’s most famous
export were quickly quashed.

The permanent exhibition within a hall of fame of Swedish
pop music opens in Stockholm this week and organisers hope to
attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually on a pop
nostalgia trip.