Business week in pictures

Traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange trading floor react to the latest annoucement from the US Federal Reserve. Stock markets around the world rallied as investors welcomed the Fed's long-awaited decision to pump more money into the American economy Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA

António Horta-Osório, the head of Santander UK who is to become the new chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, could collect more than £8m next year in a controversial pay and perks package. 'This is a huge amount of money at a time when thousands of people are losing their jobs at Lloyds,' said a spokesman for the Unite union Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Thomas Cook is facing legal pressure to reconsider a unilateral decision to shave 5% off payments to hard-pressed hotel operators in Spain, Portugal, Greece and other popular holiday destinations. The company has blamed the shock move on the multiple challenges to have hit British tour operators this year, citing "volcanic ash impact, the general election and emergency budget, interest in the World Cup and especially good weather in the UK"
Photograph: Terry Harris/Just Greece Photo Library/Alamy

Aviva, Britain's second-largest insurance group, is selling its Taiwan business and hinted at further disposals to focus on the UK and Europe. It is also cutting several hundred jobs in Canada and shutting its final salary pension scheme as part of efforts to save £400m Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Ryanair raised full-year profit targets after the budget airline said passengers will pay more for their fares this winter than previously expected. Europe's largest short-haul carrier said yields, or average fares, would rise by close to 10% over the next six month Photograph: Jens-Ulrich Koch/AFP/Getty Images

Britain's austerity measures will cost more than 1.6m jobs over the next five years with the private sector taking the biggest hit, MPs were warned. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has calculated that the impact of the government's spending cuts on the nation's workforce, and the imminent rise in VAT, will be greater than officially estimated Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Westfield, the Australian corporate giant, is bidding to attract traders away from London's Borough market on the south bank to a new market next to the 2012 Olympic site. The developer – which runs 119 shopping centres around the world – is looking to make its first UK foray into fresh food markets by setting up a farmers' market at its £1.5bn development at Stratford City Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

Crews work to clean up oil washed ashore at Pensacola Beach in Florida in June. BP said it expects the cost of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster to be $7.7bn (£4.8bn) bigger than previously thought, pushing the total bill to nearly $40bn. The oil giant announced the new charge to cover the cost of the Gulf of Mexico spill alongside its financial results for the third quarter of the year Photograph: Michael Spooneybarger/AP

Three of London's top hotels, including the world-famous Claridge's (pictured), have been plunged into the centre of Ireland's financial crisis after their owner lost a legal challenge against the state. Belfast-born Paddy McKillen failed in his attempt to stop €2.1bn (£1.8bn) in loans associated with his property empire being acquired by Ireland's "bad bank", the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) Photograph: Hemis/Alamy

Fresh evidence of inflationary pressure emerged when the latest snapshot of high street prices showed the cost of food rising at its fastest rate in more than a year. The monthly British Retail Consortium/Nielsen price survey found that shoppers were paying more for bread and meat as a result of sharp increases in the price of wheat and corn Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Kate Moss at Topshop's flagship Oxford Street store, London, where the model launched her last signature collection for the high street clothing chain. Shoppers could be hit by double-digit percentage increases in the cost of clothes next year if soaring cotton prices do not go into reverse soon, fashion chain Next warned Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA

Royal Mail has made its first significant loss on delivering letters for eight years as its new chief executive warned that the British market could shrink by 40% within five years Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

New York's leading auction houses expect to sell more than $1bn worth of artwork during their autumn sales. Sotheby's kicked off the season with a sale of modern and impressionist lots that included a Modigliani nude La Belle Romaine. And fierce rival Christie's took its turn with lots from the collection of financier Henry Kravis featuring Back IV, a Matisse bronze of a woman's back, expected to fetch $25m Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

FirstGroup, the owner of Greyhound buses, is reversing some of the recession-driven service cuts it made over the past year. The public transport group has cut the number of miles travelled by its 8,500 buses by 6% this year as the downturn hit demand and profits Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian