The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (the Foundation) released the June 2017 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 remained steady in June at 63.5, relatively unchanged from the May index of 63.2.

June 2017 survey results:
The overall MCI-EFI is 63.5, steady with the May index of 63.2.

• 31% of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, an increase from 22.6% in May. 69% of respondents believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months, a decrease from 71% in May. None believe business conditions will worsen, a decrease from 6.5% the previous month.

• 17.2% of respondents believe demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures (capex) will increase over the next four months, a decrease from 38.7% in May. 82.8% believe demand will “remain the same” during the same four-month time period, up from 54.8% the previous month. None believe demand will decline, down from 6.5% who believed so in May.

• 13.8% of the respondents expect more access to capital to fund equipment acquisitions over the next four months, up from 12.9% in May. 86.2% of executives indicate they expect the “same” access to capital to fund business, up from 83.9% last month. None expect “less” access to capital, a decrease from 3.2% last month.

• 41.1% of the executives report they expect to hire more employees over the next four months, a decrease from 45.2% in May. 51.6% expect no change in headcount over the next four months, unchanged from last month. None expect to hire fewer employees, down from 3.2% in May.

• None of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “excellent,” unchanged from last month. 100% of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “fair,” and none evaluate it as “poor,” both also unchanged from May.

• 41.4% of the survey respondents believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better” over the next six months, a slight decrease from 41.9% in May. 51.7% of survey respondents indicate they believe the U.S. economy will “stay the same” over the next six months, unchanged from the previous month. 6.9% believe economic conditions in the U.S. will worsen over the next six months, up slightly from 6.5% who believed so last month.

• In June, 48.3% of respondents indicate they believe their company will increase spending on business development activities during the next six months, an increase from 45.2% in May. 51.7% believe there will be “no change” in business development spending, unchanged from the previous month. None believe there will be a decrease in spending, down from 3.2% last month.