The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation has released the Q2 2020 Equipment Leasing & Finance Industry Snapshot, a resource for industry participants that is more indispensable than ever amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Designed for use in executive briefings and presentations, the presentation slide deck summarizes the current conditions and projections for the U.S. economy and equipment finance industry with clear, easy-to-digest charts and short narratives of key trends.
 
Among the range of details in the new release:

• The U.S. economy grew at a moderate 2.1 percent annualized growth in Q4 2019 driven by net exports, while consumer spending remained healthy ahead of the pandemic.
• The U.S. economy is already in a recession and will suffer a historically deep contraction of -30 to -40 percent in Q2 2020.
• COVID-19 economic impacts on consumers include millions of employee layoffs, plummeting spending, and rapidly rising financial stress.
• Impacts on businesses range from a decimated service sector as more than 90 percent of the U.S. population is under stay-at-home orders, to the collapse in demand for hotels, to a massive demand shock in the oil sector that may result in a 30 million barrel per day global oversupply.
• Equipment and software investment is likely to plunge in the first half of 2020, though a return to growth is possible in the second half of the year should the public health crisis subside.
• New business volume growth reported in ELFA’s Monthly Leasing and Finance Index is off to a strong start in 2020, but the effects of the pandemic are likely to quickly reverse this trend.

Prepared by Keybridge Research and updated quarterly, the snapshot is available for free download here.