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 Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Thierry Charlier/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Kim Kyung-hoon/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Brendan McDermid/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Eddie Mulholland/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: AGF s.r.l./guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Toby Melville/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Matt Cardy/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Tim Ireland/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Simon Dawson/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Mark Lennihan/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Jonathan Player/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: Toru Hanai/guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: guardian.co.uk 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 Photograph: guardian.co.uk