The Swedish Central Bank has raised its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 0.75 percent.

The announcement was expected as Sweden’s economy has grown during the first half of this year. While the inflation rate has stayed low it is expected to increase as the trade conditions improve which is one of the reasons why the so called repo rate was raised.

Johan Javeus, Chief Strategist at SEB Bank (2:21)

Same-sex marriages are controversial in many parts of the world, but not so much in Sweden, which was one of the first countries to legalize it. And now, one airline company is running a promotion in which they aim to host the world's first gay marriage – airborne.

Peter Eriksson, one of two spokespersons for the Swedish Green Party, attacked two of the parties in the centre-right government for not releasing the names of those donating money to the parties’ election campaigns.

In an opinion piece published in newspaper Dagens Nyheter, on Thursday, Eriksson writes that Sweden should force political parties to publish the names of those who make donations of more than 20.000 Swedish kronor, roughly 2.700 US dollars.

The new phenomenon of parents, often from poor Eastern European countries, leaving their children to find work in richer European countries could have long-term negative effects on both the children and the society, experts warn.

On Wednesday evening Swedish Television’s investigative programme Uppdrag Granskning, put the focus on the children, who have been dubbed “euro-orphans” and interviewed psychologists and NGOs about the problem.

Falsterbo, a small community in the most southern part of Sweden, which usually attracts large crowds each year for the Falsterbo Horse Show will host the first Falsterbo Bird Show this weekend, news agency TT reports.

The event will last for three days and bird enthusiasts from all over the world will be able to see the European Honey Buzzard, which is an endangered bird spices. The event is meant to raise money to protect the environment and will also include lectures and other events.

The anti-immigration party the Sweden Democrats presented their election manifesto Thursday including several reforms to reduce the number of immigrants that will be allowed to stay in the country.

The party wants to ban burkas and proposes new limitation in the immigration laws. They also want to return to what they call assimilation politics where immigrants will be force to adopt a more Swedish lifestyle.

Women in Swedish universities are getting lower grades each year which could be the result of more women than men studying online, according to a new report from the National Agency for Higher Education.

In the past few years the result of Swedish university students have gone down consistently and according to the agency’s latest report students today only manage to obtain 79 percent of the points they have signed up for. This is 4 percent less compared to five years ago, newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported Thursday.

Alber Elbaz, the artistic director for fashion brand Lavin, and menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver join the ranks of designers and celebrities who have designed a collection for retail giant H&M the company announced on Thursday.

Madonna, Stella McCartney and Comme des Garçons’ founder Rei Kawakubo are some of the previous guest designers for the company. The new collection is expected to go on sale in November this year.