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The Bank of Korea is on Thursday scheduled to conclude its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The central bank is widely expected to keep rates on hold at 2.50 percent.

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The World Bank lowered its growth forecasts for the global economy on Thursday, citing deeper-than-expected recession in the euro area and muted growth in developing countries. Releasing the June edition of the Global Economic Prospects, the lender said it now expects the world economy to grow 2.2 percent this year, decelerating from the 2.3 percent expansion in 2012.

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The number employed persons in Australia unexpectedly increased in May, owing to an increase in part-time employment, the latest report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday. The report also revealed a marginal dip in the unemployment rate. The number of employed persons rose 1,100 from a month earlier to 11.66 million in May. Economists expected a decline of 10,000.

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Business inventories in the U.S. rose in line with economist estimates in the month of April, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday. The report said business inventories increased by 0.3 percent in April compared to a revised 0.1 percent decrease in March. The modest rebound matched the expectations of economists.

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With prices for fuel imports seeing a significant decrease, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected drop in U.S import prices in the month of May. The report said import prices fell by 0.6 percent in May following a revised 0.7 percent decrease in April. Economists had been expecting import prices to come in unchanged.

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The members of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy board said that the Japanese economy had finally started to move to the upside, minutes from the board's meeting on May 21 and 22 revealed on Friday. On the matter of ending the deflation that has plagued Japan for more than 15 years, some of the board members admitted that it could be difficult to attain the bank's new CPI target of 2 percent.

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Food prices in New Zealand were up a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent on month in May, Statistics New Zealand said on Friday

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Annual inflation in India continued to ease in May, with wholesale prices rising at the weakest pace in three-and-a-half-years. However, a rate cut is highly unlikely on Monday as the extreme weakness of the rupee could lift import costs of the nation, which relies heavily on overseas crude oil. Inflation based on the wholesale price index eased to 4.7 percent, a 43-month low.

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Consumer sentiment in the U.S. has unexpectedly deteriorated in the month of June, according to a report released by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan on Friday, with the consumer sentiment index pulling back off a nearly six-year high. The report showed that the preliminary reading on the consumer sentiment index for June came in at 82.7, down from the final May reading of 84.5.

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With a sharp drop in utilities output offsetting increases in mining and manufacturing output, the Federal Reserve released a report on Friday showing that U.S. industrial production unexpectedly came in unchanged in the month of May. The report said industrial production came in flat in May following a revised 0.4 percent decrease in April.

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