US business equipment borrowings up 2% in December - ELFA

CANON

23/01/2024 23:24

Jan 23 (Reuters) - U.S. companies borrowed 2% more in
December to finance equipment investments compared with a year
earlier, industry body Equipment Leasing and Finance Association
(ELFA) said on Tuesday.
    Companies signed up for new loans, leases and lines of
credit worth $12.5 billion in December, up 51% from the
preceding month.
    "Positive year-end new business volume shows that U.S.
businesses continue to rely on equipment financing to operate
and grow," ELFA President and CEO Leigh Lytle said.
    ELFA, which reports economic activity for the nearly
$1-trillion equipment finance sector, also said credit approvals
for U.S. companies was 75% in December, down from 76% a month
ago.
    The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation, ELFA's
non-profit affiliate, said its confidence index in January stood
at 48.6, higher than the 42.5 in December. A reading above 50
indicates a positive business outlook.
    Washington-based ELFA's leasing and finance index is based
on a survey of 25 members, including Bank of America  BAC.N  and
financing units of Caterpillar  CAT.N , Dell Technologies
 DELL.N , Siemens AG  SIEGn.DE , Canon Inc  7751.T  and Volvo AB
 VOLVb.ST .

 (Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi
Majumdar)
 ((Nathan.Gomes@thomsonreuters.com;))