Bloomberg China’s central bank raised interest rates for standing lending facility loans (SLF), aimed mainly at small- and medium-sized financial institutions, it announced on Saturday. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) increased the rate for overnight SLF loans by 0.2 percentage points to 3.3 percent effective from March 16, it said in a statement on its website. The bank …

  Bloomberg After practically inventing the sport utility vehicle, Jeep is missing out on the segment’s latest boom. While SUV sales in the US jumped 11 percent over the past four months, Jeep saw its volume drop 10 percent. One of the problems: A lack of supply that’s kept dealers waiting for the all-new 2017 Compass compact crossover, which replaces …

  TORONTO / AP Ford Motor Co. will hire approximately 400 employees from software company BlackBerry Ltd. as part of sizable new investments in Canada that include a connected-vehicle research center in Ottawa, company officials said. Ford said the Ottawa research center is part of a $500 million Canadian (US$376 million) investment. It comes amid a race by automakers to …