BENGALURU, March 15 Reuters Australia39;s central bank will hold its key interest rate at 4.35 for a third straight meeting on Tuesday and at least until endSeptember, according to a Reuters poll of economists who see at least two rate cuts in the final quarter of 2024.

While financial markets have priced in rate cuts for most other major central banks starting around June, the Reserve Bank of Australia is a notable outlier with no such midyear pricing.

Despite the RBA39;s recent hawkish stance and stillelevated inflation, no economist expected the next move to be up, with a variety of forecasts for a cut in the second half of this year given that economic growth has been lacklustre.

We are seeing belowtrend growth and so we think unless we get a large upside surprise, it39;s more a matter of how long they have to wait and stay in restrictive territory rather than being pushed higher. We certainly don39;t think the RBA is going to be in a position to cut rates for some time yet, said Taylor Nugent, senior economist at NAB.

All 40 economists polled by Reuters March 1114 predicted the RBA would keep its official cash rate unchanged at 4.35 on March 19.

For the March meeting, we don39;t expect the RBA to change their communication too much. Data has come broadly in line with what they expect and we think they39;ll need to see more evidence on the domestic inflation picture before really updating their view, Nugent added.

All major local banks CBA, Westpac, ANZ and…