White Clarke Group has published its annual Global Leasing Report, providing a guide to the world’s top 50 leasing markets. The report reveals a confident industry outlook, with the top 50 countries in 2016 reporting growth in new business volume of 9.40% rising from US$ 1,005.30bn in 2015 to US$ 1,099.77bn in 2016. The leasing industry has experienced significant growth and has introduced new and innovative ways to finance equipment for companies worldwide.

In the top five largest leasing markets the United States remains in first place, however, according to the Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA), the US witnessed decelerated growth from 11.10% in 2015 to 2.54% in 2016 in new business volume.

China continued its rapid rise gaining on the US as the second largest leasing market, up a massive 61.9% to US$ 206bn in 2016. The growth of the market has been remarkable and leasing is now seen as an important finance option in the domestic economy.

The United Kingdom and Germany are positioned as the third and fourth largest leasing markets in the world and remain the dominant players in Europe, accounting for 42% of the European market total. In 2016, the UK industry captured US$ 81.77bn of new business registering a significant growth rate of 8.98% as compared with the previous year amid challenging economic conditions over the uncertainty of the Brexit negotiations. Germany registered positive growth of 3.42% in comparison to 2015 and with new business volume of US$ 64.3bn

Japan, experienced a small decrease in lease transaction volume in 2016 of -1.3%. However it still remains the second largest market in Asia behind China.

Looking ahead, Brendan Gleeson, Group CEO at White Clarke Group said: “The year 2016 has brought significant socioeconomic events, namely Brexit negotiations and tense political situations over the world. It is quite early to assess how these markets will react to these events, however the tone for 2017 figures is currently optimistic regardless of such instabilities in international economies.”