A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Friday:

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates _ Debt-burdened Dubai insisted that it took into account market fallout from its appeal to delay paying creditors, but offered no specifics and did little to ease worries that dragged down global markets for a second day.

Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman of Dubai's Supreme Fiscal Committee, stressed that the call to defer for at least six months at least some of $60 billion owed to creditors by Dubai World, the emirate's chief investment arm, was "carefully planned" and aimed at taking decisive action.

But the announcement appeared to reinforce worries that Dubai's rulers are fueling a crisis of confidence from world markets with their policies of keeping tight control over information on their fiscal standing and deal making. The timing of the announcement worsened the concerns, since it came ahead of a three-day Islamic holiday.

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TOKYO _ Japan prices fell again in October, just as a surging yen threatens to worsen the deflation that is undermining the country's fragile economy.

The core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food, retreated at a near-record pace of 2.2 percent from a year earlier, the government said. Prices have now fallen for eight straight months _ a trend that the government highlighted last week for the first time in three years.

The news came amid heightened concern over the Japanese currency, which hit a new 14-year high against the dollar.

A strong yen and deflation represent a perilous combination for the world's second-biggest economy.

The yen weakened after Japan's finance minister Hirohisa Fujii called the yen's surge "a very serious situation" and added that Tokyo will take appropriate measures as needed, even suggesting that Japan may cooperate with the U.S. and Europe to calm foreign exchange markets.

In Asian trading, Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 4.8 percent lower, while South Korea's benchmark plummeted 4.7 percent, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average fell 3.2 percent, Australia's index dropped 2.9 percent and China's main Shanghai stock measure was off 2.4 percent.

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BEIJING _ Chinese leaders pledged to stick to stimulus spending and easy credit to support growth next year, making clear their unease about the stability of China's nascent recovery from the global crisis.