Earlier in the day, official data showed that Tokyo's core
consumer price inflation, which excludes fell by 0.4% in October, less than the
expected 0.5% decline, following after a 0.4% fall the previous
month.
In the U.S., real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.0 percent in the third quarter of 2012, according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The increase in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), federal government spending, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from exports, non-residential fixed investment, and private inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
In addition to that, the dollar index rose to its highest in 1-1/2 months on Friday, helped by the U.S. currency gains against the euro as fresh worries about Greece weighed on the single currency.
Elsewhere, a preliminary report by the IMF showed on Thursday that the Greek debt will be above the target of 120 percent of GDP in 2020, hence Athens will need more reforms before emergency credit from international lenders can start flowing again.
A separate report showed that Spain's unemployment rate rose to 25.0% in the second quarter, from a rate of 24.6% the previous quarter, barely beating expectations for a rise to 25.1%.
