The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to hold its official lending rate at 2% when it meets this afternoon to make a decision on its cash rate.
Current market pricing suggests just a 9% chance of a decrease to 1.75%.
Australian betting agency CrownBet is offering $1.03 for a ''no change'' decision, which would mean the RBA keeping its rate at a record low of 2%, CrownBet spokesman Rob Cumbrae-Stewart said.
''To put this into perspective, $1.03 is shorter than the majority of prices for Black Caviar over her 25 wins from 25 starts racing career. In betting terms, it's as close to a certainty as you're likely to see for some time.''
A cut of 0.25% was paying $10 and an increase by the same amount was paying $26, he said.
The annual rate of inflation is staying well below the RBA's 2% to 3% target, weighed down by falls in utility prices.
Consumer prices were up 0.2% in July, according to the TD Securities/Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge, released yesterday.
That was keeping the annual rate of inflation at 1.6% to July, and it had stayed below 2% all year.
TD head of Asia Pacific research Annette Beacher said she expected inflation to pick up a little in the coming months.
''The fall in utility prices in July was the result of a state government rebate, and is a one-off. Otherwise, we note that annual inflation rates may have found a trough,'' she said.
TD Securities was not expecting the RBA to cut the cash rate in the foreseeable future after the central bank made two reductions earlier this year.
Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said the RBA's more detailed statement of monetary policy was due on Friday and there would be some focus on the discussion on housing, given recent increases to investor lending rates by major Australian banks.
The Bank of England rate decision was due tomorrow, he said.
The Bank of England was the other major central bank likely to lift interest rates at some point in the coming year, although it was generally expected the bank would wait for the United States Federal Reserve to move before taking any action.
''Consequently, no change is expected this week and we will quite likely see no action until sometime next year.''
United Kingdom GDP data was released last week and looked ''fairly decent'' at 0.7% for the quarter and 2.6% year-on-year. The result was in line with expectations and UK economic growth was now about 5% higher than the pre-global financial crisis peak, Mr Timms said.
Last week's employment cost index in the US was well below expectations. The index, which measured the wages and benefits of workers, rose only 0.2% for the second quarter.
Not only were they much weaker than the 0.6% consensus estimate, it was the smallest gain since 1982, he said.
Signs of wage growth were crucial to the Fed's case for raising interest rates and market expectations for a move in September fell after the release of the report.
The odds of a September move, based on implied yields from Fed funds futures, fell to 38% from 48% the day before. The odds for a December move fell to 68% from 80% the day before.
The July US jobs report was due out on Friday, with market expectations sitting at 225,000, close to the 233,000 peak last month, Mr Timms said.
The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged at 5.3% and average hourly wages were expected to have increased 0.2%.
At a glance
• Reserve Bank of Australia expected to leave lending rate at 2%.
• Australian inflation below RBA target.
• Bank of England not expected to change its base rate of 0.5%.
• Odds of the US Federal Reserve lifting rates by December are slipping.
