Leasing market confidence boost

The Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation has released data suggesting that confidence in the equipment finance market is on the up, with business executives coming to terms with the current state of the US economy.

The Foundation’s August monthly confidence index for the equipment finance industry (MCI-EFI) now stands at 54.8, an increase from the July index of 52.5.

Fewer executives expect business conditions to improve over the next four months (10% a decrease from 12.1% in July). The majority (80%)of respondents believe business conditions will remain the same, while the proportion who think things will get worse is now 10%, a decrease from 12.1% the previous month.

Most (70%) expect demand will “remain the same” during the same four-month time period, up from 57.6% the previous month. The proportion who think believe demand will decline has almost halved to 16.7%, a decrease from 30.3% who believed so in July.

None of those polled evaluates the current US economy as “excellent,” unchanged from last month. The majority (90%) of the leadership evaluate the current US economy as “fair,” a decrease from 100% last month. Meanwhile 10% evaluate it as “poor,” an increase from none in July.

Nearly all (96.7%) of survey respondents indicate they believe the US economy will “stay the same” over the next six months, an increase from 78.8% the previous month.

“I am concerned about slow to no growth in an election year with increasing delinquency and bad debt. Consolidation brings opportunities on a small scale and is challenging on a large scale,” observed David Normandin, managing director, Commercial Finance Group, Banc of California