Week in pictures

Imperial Energy, which explores for oil in western Siberia, has agreed to a takeover by India's ONGC Videsh for £1.4bn Photograph: Alexander Natruskin/Reuters

Bovis, Britain's fifth-largest housebuilder, has added to the gloom in the sector after it slashed its dividend and warned that there is no end in sight to the slump. Taylor Wimpey also took a £1.2bn hit and slashed the value of its assets Photograph: Jason Alden/Newscast

H is for Housing market: Britain's once red-hot housing market came crashing down this year with steep double-digit price falls. Some areas of the country saw houses halve in value, helping to placing Britain among the worst performers as world house values collapsed. In an effort to kick-start the UK housing market, the Treasury announced a one-year rise in stamp duty exemption, for properties under £175,000, in September Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty

Rio Tinto has shrugged off talk of an impending collapse in the commodities market, pointing to recent research that suggested China will build up to 50,000 skyscrapers in the next 20 years, the equivalent of 10 New Yorks, creating sustained long-term demand for steel and other raw materials Photograph: China Photo Agency/PR

Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin. The bank has strengthened its board with the appointment of three non-executive directors, including the deputy chairman of Northern Rock, in a move designed to pacify investors Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP

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

The music executives behind Kaiser Chiefs and Primal Scream are backing a new website that will allow music fans to invest financially as well as emotionally in hotly tipped new acts Photograph: Mario Cruz/EPA

Aer Lingus warned that it needs to cut costs across its business, raising fears of job losses, after plunging into a loss for the first half of this year Photograph: Chris Bacon/PA

Things are looking up for Cushing, Oklahoma, the rural community where Wall Street's energy gambles are translated into reality Photograph: Mark Kraus/agency

Suppot services group Serco said its US operations will account for a fifth of total revenues once it has absorbed SI International, a company whose extensive links to the US air force include providing logistical support to the F-22 Raptor fighter jet Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty