Leasing industry maintains its growth path, but equipment investment is still sluggish

The Ifo business climate indicator for leasing has increased significantly, reaching the highest level in three years. The leasing companies not only see a brighter future; they also assess their current business situation more favourably than in the previous quarter. There were only isolated reports of an unsatisfactory current business situation. The signs still point to recovery: on balance almost 30% of the leasing companies hope for better business in the first half of this year. The reason for this optimism is probably the unforeseen boom in new automobile registrations in the last two months of 2004. Leasing will only provide a weak contribution to reducing unemployment: According to the current survey results, the firms expect only a modest increase in employment of a quarter percent for the fourth quarter of 2004.