Inflation hit a three-decade high and unemployment dipped further in Japan, data showed Friday, as the government's bid to jumpstart the economy takes hold, but analysts warned it was too early for celebrations.

Japanese consumer inflation, stripping out volatile fresh food prices, rose 3.4 percent year-on-year in May, the fastest pace in 32 years, according to data from the internal affairs ministry.

Before the fast, let there be a shopping feast.

From Harrods in Knightsbridge to the glittering diamond stores in Mayfair, London has long attracted big spenders. But every year around the holy month of Ramadan, which starts this weekend, a wave of spectacularly rich Middle Eastern shoppers arrives and takes retail therapy to a whole new level — complete with an entourage of bodyguards, chauffeurs, and Gulf-registered Rolls-Royces and Ferraris flown in just for the occasion.

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel suggested on Thursday that the EU could ease its rules on co-financing investment projects, but insisted that he was not seeking to undermine the wider budget framework. 

"Nobody is attacking the Growth and Stability Pact," Gabriel told the German parliament's low house, referring to the European Union's budget rules requiring member states to keep a lid on their public deficits.

Is Britain's economy heading for bubble trouble?

Concerns are mounting that the country's housing market is overinflated, with London house prices rising almost 19 percent in the year to April. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has described the situation as the greatest risk to the economy. The International Monetary Fund is worried. Ditto European Union officials.

Japan's top e-commerce site operator Rakuten will enter the air travel business by allying with Asia's biggest budget carrier, Malaysia-based AirAsia, a report said Thursday.

Rakuten is preparing to make a capital injection in AisAsia's Japanese unit, possibly in 2015, the Toyo Keizai economic magazine said on its online edition.

The price of global crude dipped under $114 Thursday as fears diminished somewhat over supply disruptions from Iraq while U.S. oil extended gains on looser U.S. export controls.

Benchmark U.S. crude for August delivery rose 25 cents per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 47 cents to settle at $106.50 on Wednesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, eased 7 cents to $113.93 a barrel in London.

Consumer confidence in Germany is rising again, buoyed by the European Central Bank's recent decision to cut interest rates, a new poll found on Wednesday.

"The additional cut in interest rates by the ECB and the decision to charge banks for parking their money at the central bank has given the consumer climate an extra boost and is the main reason behind the rise in consumer confidence," market research company GfK said in a statement.

Oil markets have staged only a muted reaction to the bloody insurgency gripping OPEC's number two producer Iraq, but analysts warn any disruption to supplies could push prices to record peaks.

The offensive led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that has swept through the north of the country and is now threatening to rip Iraq apart has sent prices to nine-month highs but they remain $30 below the peaks hit in 2008.

Japanese auto giant Toyota will start selling its first fuel cell sedan this financial year, with a price tag of around 7 million yen ($70,000), the company announced Wednesday.

The vehicles will be rolled out by March and beyond the home market during the summer of 2015, it said, in a move that will see the environmentally friendly cars available in the United States and Europe.

New Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promises to revive the economy face a gathering threat from inflation, which is creeping up again due to oil prices, weak monsoon rains and hoarding, analysts say.

Food inflation, one of the reasons voters resoundingly ejected the previous Congress government in elections in April and May, is gathering pace with troublesome onion prices in the spotlight.