The US Federal Reserve last week raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade, and Australia may be less than a year behind it, according to the reckoning of some.
Because although the Reserve Bank of Australia is still formally more likely to cut interest rates again than lift them, market pricing all but discounts further easing in monetary policy at least in the first quarter next year, while some economists have suggested we could see the start of a new tightening cycle before the end of 2016.
This would put Australia third, behind the United Kingdom and the US, in the sequence of modern economies which have finished cutting interest and are moving towards increases. 
This view, and market bets on the domestic currency supporting it, partly explains the Aussie's recent resilience.
On Monday, the local unit was fetching US71.58&cent; in late trading, compared with US71.38&cent; at the same time on Friday, a day after the Fed's interest rate lift-off.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is among the most hawkish on Australian interest rates, arguing that steady economic growth and a pick-up in inflation will allow the RBA to "move to a more neutral footing and potentially start removing policy accommodation late in the year", according to recent research note on its 2016 outlook.
However, the US investment bank agrees with a range of forecasters who say the housing market slowdown poses a risk to this assessment.
"A key source of economic risk would be if dwelling prices materially declined as this would be expected to exacerbate the downtrend in the dwelling investment cycle and impact consumer spending," it said.
BT Investment Management goes further, however, predicting two hikes to the cash rate next year, to 2.5 per cent, while Market Economics' Stephen Koukoulas also says there should be an "interest rate hiking bias at least" by   June next year.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief economist Michael Blythe's view is typical of those who expect the RBA to stay on hold next year.
"We have the cash rate sitting at 2 per cent all the way through 2016," he said.
"What we have seen in the last couple of weeks is that markets have taken out a lot of the pricing for rate cuts they had in there.
"At various points they've had up to to two, two and a bit rate cuts priced in; now I think there's a wee bit over half of a rate cut in there for next year."
He attributes a lot of the recent reappraisal by economists and markets to the RBA, "who have, in recent times, sounded a lot more upbeat than they had been".
Despite this, CBA's chief currency strategist Richard Grace says a further decline in Australia's terms of trade - which measures export prices against import costs - will drive down the Australian dollar against the greenback.
"That's why we've got further forecasts down in the exchange rate," he said. "Because we think it will catch up to the terms of trade, which will continue to fall."
The bank's official forecast remains for the Aussie to decline to US65&cent; by the end of next year, although this is open to review following the Fed's hike last week.
Australian and New Zealand Banking group, meanwhile, has a slightly bleaker view of the Australian economy.
It predicts two rate cuts, to 1.5 per cent, in   May and   August next year, after recently shifting its call for cuts in   February and   May.
Like most of the economists who have recently changed their position on the RBA's next move, the bank cites   October's surprisingly strong jobs data. However, it also expects cooling house prices and sluggish business and government investment to force the RBA to cuts the cash rate further in 2016.