China's home price inflation cools, Japan's trade deficit surges

China's home prices continued to slow in March, according to a report on Friday.

While data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that home prices increased year-on-year in 69 of the 70 cities monitored, unchanged from February, calculations by Reuters showed that average new home prices in the 70 cities rose 7.7 percent in March from a year earlier, down from the previous month's 8.7 percent increase. From the previous month, prices rose 0.2 percent in March, slowing from the 0.3 percent increase in February.

Meanwhile, a report on Monday showed that Japan's trade situation has continued to deteriorate. Its trade deficit quadrupled from a year ago to 1.45 trillion yen in March.

While Japan's exports rose 1.8 percent, imports surged 18.1 percent as a result of higher energy imports.

For the fiscal year to March, Japan logged a record trade deficit of 13.75 trillion yen.