Business week in pictures

The west's leading economic thinktank, the OECD, warned the Bank of England that interest rates need to rise over the coming months to suppress growing inflationary pressures in Britain
Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Chancellor George Osborne clashed with the EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Michel Barnier (above), when he publicly opposed the details of a proposed continent-wide levy on banks
Photograph: Thierry Charlier/AP

Shares in London closed at their lowest level in almost nine months this week after fears of a fresh phase of the global financial crisis prompted a sell-off in equities
Photograph: Kim Kyung-hoon/Reuters

Floor traders gather the New York Stock Exchange as Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, made a whistlestop tour of Europe, as stockmarkets in London, Frankfurt and Paris rallied after earlier falls
Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

New figures, from the Office for National Statistics, showed that the economy rebounded from recession more strongly than initially thought in the first quarter
Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Chancellor George Osborne and Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws announced further details of the government's £6.2bn spending cuts on the private sector, including a 50% reduction in advertising this year and a freeze on new work with management consultants
Photograph: Eddie Mulholland/The Daily Telegraph

The aid charity led by the rock musicians Bono and Bob Geldof called for Italy to be expelled from the Group of Seven leading developed nations for failing to meet aid promises made at the Gleneagles summit five years ago
Photograph: AGF s.r.l./Rex Features

Nationwide, Britain's biggest building society, warned it may have to cut branches and jobs after reporting a near halving in annual profits
Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

US food conglomerate Kraft has been censured by the body that polices City takeovers for breaking the promise it made during its battle to buy Cadbury to keep its Somerdale factory in Somerset open
Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

BT is facing a walkout by more than half of its staff after delegates at the Communication Workers Union annual conference voted unanimously to ballot members about launching its first national strike since 1987
Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

A new era got under way at Marks & Spencer as chief executive Sir Stuart Rose unveiled his last set of annual profits before handing over to new boss Marc Bolland
Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Beleaguered and overshadowed by powerful competitors, the internet company Yahoo and the mobile phone manufacturer Nokia are pooling their expertise in an effort to regain an edge in crucial services such as maps, chat, navigation and email to challenge the dominance of Apple's iPhone
Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP

Wiltshire-based Dyson, the business founded by Sir James Dyson, said it had 'bucked the recession', doubling operating profits to £190m in the last 12 months thanks to new products including a bladeless fan and a hand dryer
Photograph: Jonathan Player/Rex Features

Apple launches its iPad today as financial figures released on Wednesday show the company co-founded by Steve Jobs has overtaken Microsoft in market value
Photograph: Toru Hanai/Reuters

American Apparel revealed it had slumped to an $18m (£12.4m) loss and was in grave danger on defaulting on a loan it took out last year
Photograph: Sarah Lee

Google's smart idea of putting a playable Pac-Man game on its homepage for a day last week caused bored office workers to waste 4.82 million hours, at a cost in global productivity of $120m (£82m)
Photograph: Google