Business week in pictures

Toyota's safety crisis deepened further after it was forced to suspend sales of its latest Lexus 4x4 model in the US. The Japanese carmaker took the 2010 Lexus GX 460 off the market after an influential American consumer magazine warned customers the vehicle was unsafe
Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods firm, said austerity chic was out and bling was back as it reported soaring demand for its Krug Champagne, designer handbags and diamond-set Tag Heuer watches
Photograph: Tag Heuer

A potential buyer reads a brochure at the Beijing Property Trade Fair. China's economic growth surged to 11.9% in the first quarter of 2010, potentially giving Beijing room to allow its currency to rise. Analysts warned, however, that it faces growing pressure to cut back on stimulus policies and keep its economy from overheating
Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Greeks taking fright at the fiscal crisis enveloping the debt-stricken country are grabbing properties in Britain as part of a desperate flight of capital. British homeowners may worry about the resilience of the economy but from Athens it appears as a relative haven
Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

Somalian refugees in October Camp wait for food and supplies to be handed out by local authorities supported by Oxfam. Rich western countries are on course to break their pledge to double aid flows to the world's poorest countries, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said.
Photograph: Antonio Olmos

The Financial Services Authority has fined two former Northern Rock executives and imposed restrictions on their working in the industry again, in the first penalties against senior bank figures in the wake of the financial crisis. The regulator said it had fined the former deputy chief executive at the bank, David Baker, and former managing credit director Richard Barclay, for deliberately misreporting mortgage arrears figures
Photograph: Martin Argles

Britain's trade gap has narrowed to its lowest level in almost three years amid signs the weaker pound is boosting exports, according to official figures. After bad weather disrupted the movement of goods to ports in the first few weeks of the year, exports bounced back strongly in February
Photograph: David Levene

The Canadian government has given a green light for the US online bookstore Amazon to open a distribution centre north of the border, despite vehement opposition by local bookshops, in a case that became a key test of attitudes towards cultural protectionism and free trade
Photograph: David Levene

Microsoft marketing manager Derek Snyder introduces a new smartphone called Kin One. Microsoft hopes to take on the growing importance of bitter rivals Apple and Google in the mobile phone market with a new range of its own mobile devices that focus on social networking
Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

Greece's finance minister George Papaconstantinou leaves the prime minister's office in Athens. The euro rallied after the eurozone's finance ministers agreed the terms of a €30bn (£26bn) bailout fund for Greece
Photograph: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

The sprawling US banking empire JP Morgan has delivered a stark illustration of the American economy's two-tier recovery by chalking up vast profits from trading on Wall Street while suffering losses on the high street as millions of recession-hit customers struggle to repay mortgages and credit card loans
Photograph: Jin Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

There was further evidence that it was back to business as usual in the City when it emerged that Terry Smith, the boss of Tullett Prebon, made £4.65m last year, and a report said the number of job vacancies in the Square Mile soared during the first quarter
Photograph: Sarah Lee

Solar panels on a roof. At least one in 10 new homes in Britain do not meet legal requirements for energy efficiency, condemning tens of thousands of householders to higher energy bills, and exacerbating climate change
Photograph: Gareth Phillips