The Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation has released the June 2015 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 $903 billion equipment finance sector. Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market is 62.6, remaining essentially the same as the June index of 63.0.

The survey is given to 50 industry executives each month from companies of varying sizes.

When asked about the outlook for the future, MCI-EFI survey respondent David T. Schaefer, chief executive officer of Mintaka Financial, said, “New applications for leases and loans increased significantly in the latter half of the second quarter. If this trend continues we would have a record third quarter post-recession. I’m moderately optimistic as we have experienced unsustained bursts in the recent past.”

“I believe that there continues to be pent-up demand for capital equipment investment while there is also expectation of higher rates in the future. This can be a powerful combination for growth in our industry,” said Paul Menzel, president & chief executive officer of Financial Pacific Leasing.

The July 2015 survey results include:

• The overall MCI-EFI is 62.6, essentially the same as the June index of 63.0.
• 24.1% of the survey respondents believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better” over the next six months, a decrease from 28.6% who believed so in June.
• 51.7% of the executives report they expect to hire more employees over the next four months, a decrease from 57.1% in June.
• 20.7% of survey respondents believe demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures will increase over the next four months, down slightly from 21.4% in June.
• When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, 17.2% of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, relatively unchanged from 17.9% in June. 75.9% of respondents believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months, a decrease from 82.1% in June. 6.9% believe business conditions will worsen, an increase from none who believed so the previous month.

The full survey results can be accessed here.