Economy

Crypto market
Bitcoin falls below $80,000 – dragging the sector down

Bitcoin falls below $80,000 and reaches its lowest price since November 11, international media reports. Since its record high in January, bitcoin has lost more than a quarter of its value.

– Given the macro environment, it is not surprising that we are where we are, says Stefan von Haenisch at crypto company Bitgo Inc to Bloomberg.

The collapse affects the entire crypto market, the news agency reports, where ether, solana and xrp are also falling sharply.

Economists: Trump threatens ECB interest rate cuts

US President Donald Trump and his tariff game are being raised as a threat to the ECB's possible interest rate cuts, a survey by Bloomberg shows.

Hopes for a 25-point cut next week have fallen somewhat and ABN Amro's senior economist Bill Diviney points out, among other things, that US tariff policy seems to be more aggressive than previously thought.

– The outlook could change significantly in the coming months, he told the news agency.

The economists who responded to the survey still believe that the central bank could lower the deposit rate to 2 percent in the next six months.
 

China's response to the tariffs: "Taking all necessary measures"

China's Ministry of Commerce will take "all necessary measures" to protect its interests if the US goes ahead with the threat and imposes tariffs of an additional 10 percent on March 4. Bloomberg writes, according to Direkt.

The ministry hopes that the US will sit down at the negotiating table to resolve the situation through dialogue, a spokesperson said.

 

The development of AI
Open AI's video service Sora has been launched in Sweden

Open AI's video service Sora is now also available in Sweden, writes DI. The company launched the video service back in December, but it was not available to users in the EU at the time.

The service is available to Chat GPT users with Plus and Pro subscriptions.

Swedish growth
Nordea on the GDP figure: “Risk that households will be disappointed”

There were unexpectedly good developments in the Swedish economy in the fourth quarter, according to several of the banks’ experts.

According to Nordea’s chief analyst Torbjörn Isaksson, the GDP figure reinforces the picture that the recovery in the economy has begun.

– I think that the conditions for an improvement are in place. 2025 will be better than 2024, he tells TT.

Isaksson also points out that the Riksbank is probably done with lowering the interest rate this time, with the risk that many households will be disappointed.

Handelsbanken also believes that the pressure in the economy was unexpectedly strong, driven by higher pressure in exports and domestic demand.

“The increasing purchasing power of households, driven by rising real wages, tax cuts and lower interest rates, indicates that domestic demand will continue to strengthen going forward,” the bank writes in a comment.

Ikea's investments
Ikea in India: We will be profitable in three years

In three years, Ikea's Indian operations expect to turn a profit, writes Bloomberg. Despite rising sales, losses for Ikea India increased in 2024.

The furniture giant plans to open four more stores in the country in the coming years. Two of these in suburbs of the capital, and one in the tech city of Gurgaon.

- We are growing in a good direction, and we are following the plan we have set up to move towards profitability, says India manager Susanne Pulverer to the news agency.

 

Swedish-founded Skype goes into the grave in the spring

Microsoft announces that Skype will be shut down in May and replaced by a free version of the tech giant's Teams service. This is reported by international media.

The video calling service Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and was sold in 2005 to Ebay and later to Microsoft.