NEW YORK (Bloomberg) The euro rose against the dollar for the first week in a month as the European Central Bank moved to curb the spread of the sovereign-debt crisis and economic data in China and Europe fuelled demand for higher-yielding assets.

The shared currency reversed an early-week slide as ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet extended liquidity measures and the bank bought bonds to quell concern some nations may default on their debt. Commodity-linked currencies gained, with South Africa’s rand advancing the most in nine months, as raw-material prices surged. US consumer confidence is at a six-month high, a survey may show next week.

“The ECB was actually being very aggressive in the bond market,” said Matthew Strauss, senior currency strategist in Toronto at Royal Bank of Canada. “When the euro was at the $1.30 level and the market was deciding to either push it down further or let it correct, that was enough for the market.”

The euro strengthened 1.3 percent to $1.3414 on Friay, the first increase since the five days ended November 5, from $1.3242 on November 26. It touched $1.2969 on November 30, the lowest level since September 15. The shared currency fell 0.6 percent to 110.73 yen, from 111.37.

The yen gained against the dollar for the first time in five weeks, advancing 1.9 percent to 82.53, the strongest level since November 15. It closed at 84.10 on Nov. 26.

Currencies linked to global growth, such as South Africa’s rand, the Norwegian krone and the Australian dollar, advanced as commodities rose. The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials gained five percent for the week, the most since October 2009.

The rand appreciated four percent, the most since March, to 6.8760 per dollar. The krone climbed 3.4 percent to 5.9523 per greenback and the Aussie rose 3 percent to 99.31 US cents.

The euro began a three-day advance against the dollar on December 1 amid speculation the ECB would take fresh steps at its meeting the next day to stem debt-crisis contagion and as data showed manufacturing expanded in China, the US and Europe.

China’s factory Purchasing Managers Index climbed for a fourth month in November, according to a logistics federation report. European manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in four months in a factory gauge of the euro area, London-based Markit Economics said, while the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index showed US manufacturing accelerated for a 16th straight month.

South Korea’s won had the biggest weekly gain in two months, rising 1.9 percent to 1,138.55 per dollar.

While Trichet stopped short of announcing new steps on Europe’s debt crisis, he said the ECB will keep offering banks as much money as they want at a fixed interest rate for seven days, one month and three months through the first quarter. It also continued a bond-buying programme.

The bank purchased Irish, Portuguese and Greek government debt over the past two days, according to traders who asked not to be identified because the deals are confidential. An ECB spokesman declined to comment.

“The ECB purchasing debt had the biggest role in the reversal of the euro,” said John Doyle, a strategist in Washington at currency-trading firm Tempus Consulting Inc. “The underlying issues for the European sovereigns and banking sectors have not gone away, but we’ve just shifted focus.”