The economic outlook for Germany is brightening, its central bank said Friday, as improved trade and rising industrial output suggested Europe's biggest economy is slowly leaving recent weakness behind it.

"The outlook for the German economy has become brighter again following the slowdown towards the end of 2012," the Bundesbank wrote in its June monthly report.

French President Francois Hollande said Friday Japan's big spending and ultra-loose monetary policies aimed at boosting its flagging economy were "good news" for austerity-weary Europe.

On a visit to Tokyo, the Socialist leader also stressed his concern at regional tensions as Japan and China square off over disputed islands -- but slipped up verbally by confusing his hosts for the Chinese.

Britain's trade-in-goods deficit shrank by more than expected in April on the back of falling imports, boosting hopes over its slow economic recovery, official data showed on Friday.

The deficit dipped to £8.2 billion ($12.8 billion, 9.6 billion euros) in April, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. That compared with a deficit of £9.2 billion in March.

Spanish factories cut production for the 20th straight month in April, official data showed Friday, sharply braking output of durable goods such as cars or washing machines in the midst of a recession.

Spain's factories and utilities lowered overall output by 1.8 percent over the year to April, after correcting for seasonal variations such as the number of working days in the month, the National Statistics Institute said in a preliminary report.

Qatar Rail has awarded four contracts to design and build railway lines worth $8.2 billion in the first phase of construction for the Doha Metro, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

"These four D&B contracts for the first phase of Qatar's ambitious metro rail include Red Line North, Red Line South, Green Line and Major Stations," said the Peninsula, an English-language daily.

Chinese state media Thursday welcomed Beijing's probe into wines from the European Union, warning of further action as the trade dispute intensified.

Fears of an EU-China trade war mounted after the Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday said it would investigate the alleged dumping of European wines "in a strict way".

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday admitted to significant failures in the first Greek rescue that forced a second, larger bailout and left the country in a deep recession.

However, the global lender placed much of the blame on its Greek and European partners, saying they were unprepared for the crisis and the harsh choices -- including a deep debt restructuring -- that may have made the first bailout work better.

France's rising unemployment reached 10.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013, the highest it has been since 1998, according to data released Thursday from the national statistics institute Insee.

The jobless rate in the eurozone's second-largest economy rose by 0.3 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2012, it said.

The European Union's executive arm has given tiny Latvia the go-ahead to become the 18th country to join the troubled euro currency union next year.

EU officials say that Latvia's desire to join is a vote of confidence in the shared currency and disproves predictions that the eurozone might break up. The current 17-country group has struggled since 2009 with too much government debt, compounded now by a slack economy.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will outline the "third arrow" of his economic growth plan Wednesday, which will include plans to boost per-capita income by more than a third in 10 years, media said.

Abe is expected to unveil his target of increasing per-capita gross national income (GNI) by more than 1.5 million yen (about $15,000) over the next decade, major papers reported.