Week in pictures

On WednesdayHBOS shares bounced as the City's faith in a rescue for the deal was renewed. Gordon Brown's support seemed to help, pushing HBOS shares up 21%. The company's shares rose further on Thursday, ending up 22p at 170.10p Photograph: Newscast

The Scandinavian affordable furniture chain has 35 stores in the US but it has had to go through years of planning battles and political footwork to open a superstore in New York City this week Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

A queue of enthusiastic customers began forming on Monday - encouraged, it should be stressed, by Ikea's canny public relations department which offered a free Ektorp three-seater sofa to the first 35 people in line. Photograph: Andrew Clark/Guardian

Profits at Morgan Stanley more than halved in the second quarter because of trading losses and a slowdown in investment banking Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

The Bank of England left interest rates on hold at 5% for the fifth month running in the face of growing evidence that the economy is rapidly heading into recession Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Reuters

Carlos Brito, chief executive of Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev, did everything but hand-deliver chocolate and flowers in his bid to woo August Busch IV, his counterpart at US brewing icon Anheuser-Busch Photograph: Imago/Newscast

Mervyn King is forced to write a letter to the chancellor explaining why inflation had surged above its target Photograph: Tomohiro Ohsumi/AFP

The fashion chain Primark has axed three longstanding suppliers in southern India for using child labour, after being alerted to the practice by the BBC Photograph: Jeffrey Rotman for the Guardian

Chinese small investors discover that share prices can also go down - and some have lost their life savings in the stampede to buy stocks Photograph: AP

Cadbury has lost share of the British chocolate market after putting up its prices but stressed that Dairy Milk and Creme Eggs are enjoying double-digit growth Photograph: Gabriel Szabo/Newscast

The economy is facing a period at "least as challenging" as the 1970s, when Britain sank into a deep recession, the deputy governor of the Bank of England, Charles Bean has warned Photograph: Newscast

A pair of Bear Stearns executives were arrested and charged with fraud over the collapse of two hedge funds. Photograph: Chip East/Reuters