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The Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said today that the Japanese economy is slowing and uncertainty surrounding the global economy is increasing. Shirakawa said that inflation likely will follow its current trend, so the BoJ will have to continue to carefully monitor the global economy. The BoJ will implement policy based on the economy and inflation, he said.

The Japanese consumer sentiment index improved in March with the reading increasing slightly to 36.7 from 36.1 in February. Economists had expected the indicator to rise to 37.4. A year ago, the indicator stood at 46.8.

The yen that hit a high of 162.68 versus the euro at 11:50 pm ET weakened thereafter. The Japanese unit touched a new multi-month low of 163.56 by about 3:50 am ET. The pair was worth 163.08 at Thursday North American close.

Germany`s producer price annual inflation accelerated to 4.2% in March from 3.8% in February, the Federal Statistical Office reported today. Economists had expected the rate to increase to 4%. The statistical office said this is the highest year-on-year rate of price increase since December 2006, when it was up 4.4%. A year ago, producer price annual inflation stood at 2.5%. On a monthly basis, the Producer Price Index, or PPI, grew 0.7%, unchanged from February and faster than the 0.5% expected.