Business week in pictures

The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King. The Bank of England kept interest rates on hold at 0.5% and its quantitative easing (QE) programme steady at £175bn, defying City speculation that it might ease policy further Photograph: Reuters

Economists declared the recession over as official data showed mothballed factories springing back to life and rising optimism in the City stoked a new merger spree Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Orange and T-Mobile are merging their UK operations to create the country's largest mobile phone operator, with 28.4 million customers or 37% of the market, leapfrogging rivals O2 and Vodafone Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

Confectionery group Cadbury, one of Britain's best-known companies, has rejected a £10.2bn takeover from Kraft, the American food giant, whose brands include Oreo cookies, Toblerone chocolate and Dairylea cheese Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Ocado's customer fulfilment centre in Hatfield. Al Gore, the former US vice-president and Nobel Prize winner, has become an investor in Ocado, giving the internet supermarket's environmental and financial credentials a significant boost before a possible stockmarket flotation Photograph: David Levene

The FTSE 100 index of Britain's leading shares closed above the key 5000 level for the first time since 26 September last year, buoyed by hopes the recession may be over and by the return of multibillion-pound mergers Photograph: Alessandro Abbonizio/AFP/Getty Images

The race to succeed Sir Stuart Rose, pictured, as chief executive of Marks & Spencer moved up a gear as John Dixon, an M&S lifer and head of the retailer's food business, was promoted to the main board Photograph: Tina Norris/Rex Features

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during the presentation of a plan to exploit recently discovered offshore oil fields. The potential of Brazil to become one of the biggest oil producers in the world was highlighted today when BG‚ the former exploration arm of British Gas‚ reported a 'supergiant' field with up to two billion barrels of recoverable reserves Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

Aquascutum, whose trenchcoats have been worn by Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Sir Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, is set to return to British ownership. The entrepreneur Harold Tillman, best known for his transformation of Jaeger, has clinched a deal to buy the fashion brand from its Japanese owner, Renown, for an undisclosed sum Photograph: Kieran Doherty/Reuters