Business week in pictures

Ad tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell – chief executive of WPP – risked being flagged offside for using a football analogy to describe Britain's business status as in the third division, and far behind 'Premiership' countries such as Brazil and China. His comments came as figures showed the UK's car sales slump and house prices slide continued Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP

A US investigation cleared BP of the most serious allegations made by a whistleblower over its Atlantis deepwater production platform in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the investigation did find that the company's database of thousands of documents for components of the platform was "disorganised, inadequate and confusing" Photograph: Sean Gardner/Reuters

Political unrest in north Africa and the Middle East having caused oil prices to rise dramatically, the UK government explored steps needed to wean the country onto other energy sources. Government departments were told to comply with a new national 'carbon plan' aimed specifically at 'getting off the oil hook' Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

The governor of the Bank of England sounded his concern at the prospect of another financial crisis as he spoke of "imbalances" in the banking system that remained unresolved and were "beginning to grow again". He criticised high street banks for routinely exploiting customers and urged them to take a longer-term approach to their business rather than simply trying to "maximise profits next week" Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The US authorities prepared for one of their biggest battles against illegal sharedealing as American hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam - founder of the Galleon hedge fund – went on trial Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Former Mean Fiddler boss Vince Power returns to the stock market in April with the company behind the Hop Farm and Benicàssim music festivals, the Music Festivals group, planning to float. Power, who is chief executive, and finance director Jon Hale, also ex-Mean Fiddler, are hoping to raise a minimum of £3m in the public offering Photograph: Simone Joyner/Getty Images

Britain's biggest bank, HSBC, dismissed "speculative and presumptuous" reports that it would quit the UK because of punitive tax and regulation. However, the bank is expected to decide in the autumn whether to keep its headquarters in the UK. The bank has recently issued disappointing yearly results – with its leaders blaming them on the government's bank levy and bonus tax Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

A railway style emergency timetable is reported to be in the works as airports operator BAA looks to avoid a repeat of last December's snow 'chaos' and travel congestion caused by bad weather. The disruption left BAA with a £24m bill and cost British Airways as much as £50m Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

ITV and Wood Group are looking to show they have the FTSE 100 X Factor by joining the elite band ahead of the blue-chip index's quarterly reorganisation. The companies, which have seen their shares soar by more than 50% in the past six months, would displace two existing FTSE 100 members: the Alliance Trust and African Barrick Gold Photograph: ITV Plc/Carnival Films

The luxury market is booming, so why not splash out and acquire something classy and of real value? French luxury group LVMH - famous for its silk scarves, handbags and champagne – is to take control of the Italian family owned jewellery maker Bulgari in an all-share deal, worth a reputed €3.7bn (£3.18bn) Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Liberal Democrats announced that a radical free-shares proposal could become party policy at its forthcoming conference. The proposal involves the distribution of government-owned shares in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group to the public, as an alternative to a conventional bank privatisation Photograph: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Nationalised lender Northern Rock reported a £232m loss but revealed its intention to still pay out £13.1m in bonuses. The news led unions to step up their calls for the organisation to be remutualised. David Fleming, national officer for the Unite union, said: "Serious consideration is now overdue for Northern Rock to be returned to mutuality in order to give it a fighting chance to deliver the recovery it desperately needs" Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

John Lewis staff reaped the benefit of being partners in the company as they shared a bonus pot of £194.5m. The firm's 76,500 staff will benefit from a payout equal to 18% of their annual salary. The partnership reported a 20% leap in pre-tax profits to £367.9m, and will create 4,300 jobs this year Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

In a week when ratings agency Moody's slashed Greece's credit rating by three notches to B1, it also downgraded Spain's to Aa2. The agency warned that Spain had under-estimated the cost of rescuing its banking sector. The move came as borrowing costs continued to rise for weaker members of the eurozone, raising fears that further rescue packages would be needed Photograph: Andrea Comas/Reuters