U.S. March Equipment and Finance Industry Confidence

Confidence in equipment financing strengthened in March, according to the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation. The index is formulated from a survey of 50 organizations to gauge business confidence in the $650 billion equipment finance industry.

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                   March   Feb.   Jan.   Dec.   Nov.   Oct.  Sept.   Aug.   July
                    2012   2012   2012   2011   2011   2011   2011   2011   2011
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Index               61.7   59.6   59.0   57.2   57.4   50.7   47.6   50.0   56.2
 Monthly change     3.5%   1.0%   3.1%  -0.3%  13.2%   6.5%  -4.8% -11.0%   6.8%
 3-mo. annualized  41.5%  62.5%  87.8%  33.4%  -7.6% -44.7% -53.4% -64.6% -58.5%
 Yearly change    -14.8% -16.8% -15.4% -11.7% -12.4% -13.8% -16.3% -14.1%  -2.4%
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The survey consists of seven questions and an area for comments: •Current business conditions •Expected product demand over the next four months •Access to capital over the next four months •Future employment conditions •Evaluation of the current U.S. economy •U.S. economic conditions over the next six months •Business development spending expectations •Open ended question for comment

SOURCE: Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Tanzi in Washington at atanzi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Marco Babic at mbabic@bloomberg.net