The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation released the Q2 2021 Equipment Leasing & Finance Industry Snapshot, an indispensable information resource for industry participants. 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 expanded at a 4.3 percent annualized pace in Q4 2020, but was still 2.4 percent below its level at the end of 2019. Growth in Q4 was driven by robust business investment, residential investment, and consumer spending.
• Overall, the Foundation projects the U.S. economy will grow by 5.7 percent in 2021.
• Economic tailwinds for growth this year include:
o Historic stimulus, record-high savings rates, and below-trend spending, which should provide a substantial lift to consumer spending as the economy reopens this summer.
o The housing sector, which is benefitting from stable demand drivers like remote work and increased Millennial homeownership.
• Economic headwinds include:
o Uneven global recovery if major trading partners like Europe struggle with vaccination efforts, which will result in weak demand for U.S. exports and drag on markets such as oil & gas and industrial equipment.
o A weak U.S. labor market despite regaining almost half of jobs lost during the pandemic.
• Additional factors to watch include:
o Vaccine rollout and new strains of COVID
o Inflationary pressures
o Infrastructure spending bill
• Equipment investment will likely accelerate in 2021 with improving vaccination rates and the need to invest for the new post-COVID normal. Equipment and software investment is projected to expand by a robust 11.2 percent in 2021.
• New business volume growth reported in ELFA’s Monthly Leasing and Finance Index rebounded at a strong 9 percent yearly pace in February, the first year over year improvement since the beginning of the pandemic.
Prepared by Keybridge Research and updated quarterly, the snapshot is available for free download here.