THE WEEK

THE WEEK featured several high-profile resignations. Lord Cairns quit as chief executive of SG Warburg Group, the merchant bank, and Nigel Whittaker, one of the original triumvirate that created the Kingfisher retail group, agreed to leave the board. Both moves were part of shake- ups after strong investor criticism.

Alan Jones, the head of Westland, the helicopter maker that is now part of GKN, was hired as chief executive of BICC, the cables and construction business. And Charles Saatchi stepped down from Saatchi & Saatchi, the advertising agency he helped to found, claiming constructive dismissal.

On the economic front, sterling fell sharply against the German mark and US dollar at one time, though it recovered later against the dollar. Retail sales slowed in January. More worrying was a sharp increase in producer prices.