The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (the Foundation) releases the June 2019 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI). 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 $1 trillion equipment finance sector. Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market was 52.8, easing from the May index of 59.2.
“As unemployment is at record lows and employees are hard to come by, companies will rely more on capital equipment to support business growth and productivity growth from the employees they have,” says MCI-EFI survey respondent Quentin Cote, CLFP, president, Mintaka Financial, LLC. “My concern is primarily the trade wars, and their impact on the prices of goods. This will eventually weaken the purchasing power of consumers and small businesses.”
When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, 3.3% of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, down from 16.1% in May. 80% of respondents believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months, an increase from 67.7% the previous month. 16.7% believe business conditions will worsen, an increase from 16.1% in May.
None of the survey respondents believe demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures (capex) will increase over the next four months, a decrease from 16.1% in May. 83.3% believe demand will “remain the same” during the same four-month time period, an increase from 77.4% the previous month. 16.7% believe demand will decline, up from 6.5% who believed so in May.
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