Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank said it will issue an unscheduled assessment of the economy next week, prompting traders to increase bets on an interest-rate cut in August. The assessment, which will be published on July 21 and won’t include a review of the official cash rate, is being made because of a longer-than-usual period between policy decisions, the …

  Bloomberg The US economy expanded at a modest pace since mid-May amid “slight” price pressures and some softening in consumer spending, according to a report from the Federal Reserve’s 12 districts that lacked any sense of urgency on the need to raise interest rates soon. “The outlook was generally positive across broad segments of the economy including retail sales, …

  BLOOMBERG Indonesia’s Islamic bond yields have fallen faster than Malaysia’s in the past three months, as the nation’s higher-yielding notes do better at attracting investors fleeing plunging rates in the developed world. Yields on rupiah sukuk due 2019 slid 39 basis points in the period, compared with 26 basis points for equivalent paper in Malaysia. Indonesia’s three-year Islamic bonds …