The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation notes in the June 2015 Monthly Confidence Index for the equipment finance industry (MCI-EFI) that, overall, confidence in the equipment finance market is 63.0, easing from the May index of 67.5.

When asked about the outlook for the future, MCI-EFI survey respondent Thomas Jaschik, president, BB&T Equipment Finance, said, “I believe any rise in interest rates will spur activity within the equipment finance industry. Companies continue to defer capital expenditures as long as possible. A rise in interest rates will hopefully provide a catalyst to accelerate capital expenditures as costs may rise in the future.”

When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, 17.9% of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, down from 30.8% in May. 82.1% of respondents believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months, up from 69.2% in May. None believe business conditions will worsen, unchanged from the previous month.

Other findings include:

• 21.4% of survey respondents believe demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures (capex) will increase over the next four months, down from 34.6% in May. 78.6% believe demand will “remain the same” during the same four-month time period, up from 65.4% the previous month. None believe demand will decline, unchanged from May.
• 25% of executives expect more access to capital to fund equipment acquisitions over the next four months, down from 38.5% in May. 75% of survey respondents indicate they expect the “same” access to capital to fund business, up from 57.7% in May. None expect “less” access to capital, down from 3.9% who expected less access to capital the previous month.
• When asked, 57.1% of the executives reported they expect to hire more employees over the next four months, an increase from 53.9% in May. 35.7% expect no change in headcount over the next four months, down from 42.3% last month. 7.1% expect to hire fewer employees, up from 3.9% who expected fewer in May.
• 3.6% of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “excellent,” relatively unchanged from 3.9% last month. 96.4% of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “fair,” and none rate it as “poor,” both unchanged from the previous month.
• 28.6% of the survey respondents believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better” over the next six months, a decrease from 34.6 % who believed so in May. 67.9% of survey respondents indicate they believe the U.S. economy will “stay the same” over the next six months, an increase from 65.4% in May. 3.6% believe economic conditions in the U.S. will worsen over the next six months, an increase from none who believed so last month.
• In June, 35.7% of respondents indicate they believe their company will increase spending on business development activities during the next six months, a decrease from 50% in May. 60.7% believe there will be “no change” in business development spending, an increase from 46.2% last month. 3.6% believe there will be a decrease in spending, relatively unchanged from 3.9% who believed so last month.

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