Asia-Pacific markets mostly lower; Hong Kong property stocks rally on budget announcement

This is CNBC's live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.

Asia-Pacific stock markets were mostly lower Wednesday as New Zealand's central bank kept its interest rate steady, while Hong Kong's property index rallied after the city's budget announcement.

Hong Kong said it would do away with property curbs in an effort to buoy its real estate sector. Financial Secretary Paul Chan said he expected the economy to grow in a range of 2.5% to 3.5% this year.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dipped 0.2%, while the Hang Seng Property index jumped nearly 2%.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand held its official cash rate at 5.50%, keeping it at a 15-year high, while warning that inflation remained well above its target range.

China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index reading and the U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index — the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge — are due Thursday.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was flat, while New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.5% after the RBNZ decision.

The CSI 300 index fell 0.3%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was flat and the broader Topix inched 0.1% higher. The Nikkei 225 had hit a record high earlier in the week.

South Korea's Kospi rose nearly 1%, rising after two straight days of declines. The smaller-cap Kosdaq added 1.2%.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite ended Tuesday with small gains as investors awaited key inflation data to be released later this week.

The S&P 500 inched up 0.17%, while the Nasdaq added 0.37%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 96.82 points, or 0.25%.

— CNBC's Hakyung Kim and Alex Harring contributed to this report.

The likelihood of achieving the Bank of Japan's 2% inflation target is "not sufficiently high" yet, said the central bank's executive director