THE NEWS WRAP: IMF warns central banks against raising interest rates too quickly

The International Monetary Fund has warned the world’s central banks against raising interest rates too quickly, pointing out global economic growth was still weak.

“Strengthening global growth does not mean that the global economy is out of the woods (and) countries including the US must not respond to the prospect of rising growth by prematurely withdrawing monetary policy accommodation,” The Australian reports the IMF saying.

The IMF also pointed to “fragile” improvements in southern Europe and imbalances inside China.

Telstra caps mobile phone call costs

Telstra is capping the amount of money many customers pay for mobile phone calls, The Australian Financial Review reports.

It says Telstra is the last of the three big telecommunications companies to make the change.

Telstra now charges a maximum $130 a month for customers on new contracts, regardless of how many calls are made.

“The most customers will pay for excess calls to standard Australian numbers is $70,” a Telstra spokesman said.

ACCC probes beer supply to pubs for anti-competitive conduct

Australia’s competition watchdog is investigating the supply of beer to Australia’s pubs to discover whether brewers are using tactics to lock out rival brands.

The Age reports the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has written to brewers seeking a better “understanding” of the market to assess whether anti-competitive conduct was happening.

”The ACCC is making some inquiries to better understand the supply conditions within the wholesale draught beer market in Australia, and to understand how certain conduct may be affecting competition,” the commission said in the letter.

Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.27% at 16,414.44 points and the Australian dollar is buying US88.1 cents.