Date arithmetic formating in Bash
You can use date to do the arithmetic for you. With BSD date:

$ /bin/date +%V
03
$ /bin/date -v-1w +%V
02


From man date:

-v   Adjust (i.e., take the current date and display the result of the
     adjustment; not actually set the date) the second, minute, hour,
     month day, week day, month or year according to val.  If val is
     preceded with a plus or minus sign, the date is adjusted forwards
     or backwards according to the remaining string, otherwise the
     relevant part of the date is set.  The date can be adjusted as
     many times as required using these flags.  Flags are processed in
     the order given.


In case you have installed and are using GNU date:

$ date -d '-1week' +%V
02
$ date -d '-1 week' +%V
02
$ date -d 'now - 1 week' +%V
02
$ date -d 'last week' +%V
02