The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation November 2021 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI) is 64.6, an increase from the October index of 61.1.
The index measures both the prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future in the equipment finance sector.
About one-third (34.6 percent) of respondents expect their business conditions over the next four months to improve, up from 25.9 percent in October. Some 19.2 percent expect it to worsen.
Demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures will increase over the next four months, according to 42.3 percent of respondents, up from 22.2 percent in October. These expecting a decline accounted for 7.7 percent of respondents.
The current U.S. economy is “excellent,” say 15.4 percent of respondents, up from 7.4 percent the previous month. Those rating it as “poor” dropped to 3.9 percent from 11.1 percent last month.
About one-quarter (23.1 percent) of respondents said that they believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better” over the next six months, an increase from 22.2 percent in October. Slightly fewer, 19.2 percent, said economic conditions will worsen.
“While I believe the equipment leasing and finance Industry will always perform well through various cycles, the last few months have shown a number of interesting data points,” said respondent Dave Fate, CEO, Stonebriar Commercial Finance, in a prepared statement. “Strong corporate earnings continue to drive the equity markets. The current rise in Inflation rates is alarming and seems like it will be with us for a while. Continued issues with the lack of skilled and non-skilled labor are the number one concern of most of our customers. Supply chain issues are causing real disruption and seem to have no viable plan to alleviate them. The rest of Q4 and into Q1 will be very interesting as we navigate through year-end closing in our industry and the Christmas holiday season.”
Source: Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation
