America News Agency

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.33 percent higher, with most sectors and major bourses in positive territory. Autos stocks led the gains, up 2 percent, with chemicals and household goods trading more than 1.4 percent higher.

Preliminary data published Friday showed France’s harmonized inflation rate fell sharply in September.

Harmonized consumer prices were 1.5 percent in September, down from 2.2 percent in August, according to the French statistics office Insee. The reading stood significantly below the European Central Bank’s 2 percent inflation target. The euro fell on the news and was last seen trading at $1.1154, down around 0.2 percent. 

European stocks had closed 1.25 percent higher on Thursday, tracking gains in Asia-Pacific markets, buoyed by China’s announcement of stimulus measures earlier in the week.

Chinese markets clocked their best week in almost 16 years as the mainland’s CSI 300 rallied 15.7 percent. The last time the index saw a bigger weekly gain was the week ending Nov. 14, 2008.

It comes after the People’s Bank of China said it was cutting its seven-day reverse repo rate to 1.5 percent, the second reduction in around three months, and slashed the reserve requirement ratio of financial institutions by 0.5 percentage points.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., attention turned to Friday's release of August’s personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE), the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge. Economists expect headline PCE to have risen 2.3 percent annually and 0.1 percent from the previous month.

U.S. stock futures were slightly higher ahead of the key data release.