Equipment Leasing and Finance Industry Confidence Holds Firm
As a proxy for economic activity, the October 2017 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI), which collects data on the prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future associated with 1 trillion equipment finance sector, shows overall, confidence in the equipment leasing and finance market is 63.7 in October, unchanged from the September index.
“Macroeconomic factors like unemployment, interest rates and corporate profitability continue to be favorable,” said Harry Kaplun, President, Frost Bank. “Regionally, storm problems will cause some business interruption that will be overcome in time. A major future stimulant is tax reform, which is gaining momentum in Congress.”
When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, 40% of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, and none believe business conditions will worsen.
One fifth of the respondents expect more access to capital to fund equipment acquisitions over the next four months while the remaining 80% expect the “same” access to capital to fund business.
One third of the executives report they expect to hire more employees over the next four months while two thirds expect no change in headcount over the next four months.
None of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “excellent.” Instead, 100% of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “fair.”
Less than a fourth of the survey respondents believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better” over the next six months, with the majority of the remainder believing it will stay the same.
Category: Featured, General Update, News
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