Equipment Leasing and Finance Industry Confidence Remains Steady in July

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation recently released the June 2015 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry. Designed to collect leadership data, the index reports a qualitative assessment of both the prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future as reported by key executives from the $903-billion equipment finance sector.

July 2015 Survey Results:
The overall MCI-EFI is 62.6, essentially the same as the June index of 63.0.

• When asked to assess business conditions over the next four months, 17.2 percent of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, relatively unchanged from 17.9 percent in June. 75.9 percent of respondents believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months, a decrease from 82.1 percent in June. 6.9 percent believe business conditions will worsen, an increase from none who believed so the previous month.
• 20.7 percent of survey respondents believe demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures will increase over the next four months, down slightly from 21.4 percent in June. 72.4 percent believe demand will “remain the same” during the same four-month time period, down from 78.6 percent the previous month. 6.9 percent believe demand will decline, an increase from none who believed so in June.
• 20.7 percent of executives expect more access to capital to fund equipment acquisitions over the next four months, down from 25 percent in June. 79.3 percent of survey respondents indicate they expect the “same” access to capital to fund business, up from 75 percent in June. None expect “less” access to capital, unchanged from the previous month.
• 51.7 percent of the executives report they expect to hire more employees over the next four months, a decrease from 57.1 percent in June. 48.3 percent expect no change in headcount over the next four months, up from 35.7 percent last month. None expect to hire fewer employees, down from 7.1 percent who expected fewer in June.
• 13.8 percent of the leadership evaluate the U.S. economy as “excellent,” an increase from 3.6 percent last month. 82.8 percent of the leadership evaluate the U.S. economy as “fair,” down from 96.4 percent in June. 3.5 percent rate it as “poor,” an increase from none the previous month.
• 24.1 percent of the survey respondents believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better” over the next six months, a decrease from 28.6 percent who believed so in June. 69 percent of survey respondents indicate they believe the U.S. economy will “stay the same” over the next six months, an increase from 67.9 percent in June. 6.9 percent believe economic conditions in the U.S. will worsen over the next six months, an increase from 3.6 percent who believed so last month.
• In July, 48.3 percent of respondents indicate they believe their company will increase spending on business development activities during the next six months, an increase from 35.7 percent in June. 51.7 percent believe there will be “no change” in business development spending, a decrease from 60.7 percent last month. None believe there will be a decrease in spending, down from 3.6 percent who believed so last month.