By Rhiannon Zanetic 

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is expected to leave interests rates unchanged when it meets today, but data released yesterday indicates that economists are divided on the chance of further rises this year, according to the Financial Review (FR).

The interest rate futures market is predicting that the 4.5% official rate for the fourth consecutive month will remain unchanged, as quite strong economic growth is offset by the central bank’s concerns about the global situation. Last week’s growth domestic product figures revealed growth of 1.2% in the June quarter, exceeding expectations.

JPMorgan expects no rate rise to occur today, and doesn’t predict an increase until February next year, but the futures market forecasts a rise of 0.12 of a percentage point.

JPMorgan economist Helen Kevans, told FR that the central bank’s commentary has been quite balanced over recent months and that will be the same story they will be telling tomorrow.

“The fact is the global economy worsened over the month, even though we saw a small improvement in US data last week, whereas the domestic economy has strengthened, and so there is still going to be that balance,” Kevans said.

“We do acknowledge there is a risk the domestic economy is ploughing ahead, but it would have to take a big improvement on the global front for the RBA to raise again this year,” she added.