In ELFA’s August confidence index, 89.3% of respondents believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months. (shutterstock)

Confidence in the prospects for the equipment finance market rose in August, with far fewer business leaders expecting weaker conditions, according to the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation.

The Washington, D.C.-based foundation’s August 2023 monthly confidence index, released Aug. 17, came in at 50.4, compared with 46.4 in July. The index provides a gauge of executives’ current sentiment and future expectations for the $1 trillion equipment finance sector.

Some 3.6% of the executives said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, a decrease from 7.7% in July, the foundation said.



However, 89.3% of the respondents believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months, up from 65.4% the previous month, while 7.1% believe conditions will worsen, compared with 26.9% in July.

Around 3.6% of the executives evaluated the current U.S. economy as “excellent,” relatively unchanged from 3.9% the previous month, the foundation said. Some 85.7% of the leadership evaluated the current U.S. economy as “fair,” up from 80.8% in July, and 10.7% evaluate it as “poor,” a month-over-month decrease from 15.4%.

Some 10.7% of the survey respondents believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better” over the next six months, a decrease from 11.5% in July, but 60.7% said the U.S. economy will “stay the same” over the coming six months, an increase from 53.9% in July. Some 28.6% believe U.S. economic conditions will worsen over the next six months, a decrease from 34.6% the previous month.

This sentiment is backed up by more positive federal data. The U.S. Census Bureau said Aug. 16 housing starts rose 3.9% compared with June and were up 5.9% compared with the same month a year earlier. This strength was built on single-family housing starts, which were up 6.7% compared with July 2022.

In addition, the Federal Reserve Aug. 16 said July total industrial production rose 1% after decreasing in the prior two months. Also, manufacturing output rose 0.5% in July, the production of motor vehicles and parts jumped 5.2%, while factory output elsewhere edged up 0.1%, the Fed said.