LONDON -

This week, White Clarke Group released its annual Global Leasing Report; a thorough guide to the world’s top 50 leasing markets.

Group chief executive officer and report author Brendan Gleeson highlighted that the newest installment revealed a “confident” industry outlook, with the top 50 countries in 2016 reporting growth in new business volume of 9.40 percent.

The United States led the way, rising from $1,005.30 billion in 2015 to $1,099.77 billion in 2016. The leasing industry has experienced significant growth and has introduced new and innovative ways to finance equipment for companies worldwide.

White Clark Group clarified that its report includes a lag in when global data becomes available, adding that 2017 information should be reviewed later this year.

Turning back to the report, Gleeson pointed out that within the top five largest leasing markets, the United States remains in first place. However, according to the Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA), the U.S. witnessed decelerated growth from 11.10 percent in 2015 to 2.54 percent in 2016 in new business volume.

China continued its rapid rise gaining on the U.S. as the second largest leasing market, up a massive 61.9 percent to $206 billion in 2016.

“The growth of the market has been remarkable and leasing is now seen as an important finance option in the domestic economy,” White Clarke Group said.

The United Kingdom and Germany are positioned as the third and fourth largest leasing markets in the world and remain the dominant players in Europe, accounting for 42 percent of the European market total.

In 2016, the UK industry captured $81.77 billion of new business registering a significant growth rate of 8.98 percent in 2016 as compared with the previous year amid challenging economic conditions over the uncertainty of the Brexit negotiations.

The report indicated Germany registered positive growth of 3.42 percent in comparison to 2015 and with new business volume of $64.3 billion.

White Clarke Group went on to note that Japan experienced a small decrease in lease transaction volume in 2016 with a dip of 1.3 percent. However, Japan still remains the second largest market in Asia behind China.

“The year 2016 has brought significant socioeconomic events, namely Brexit negotiations and tense political situations over the world,” Gleeson said. “It is quite early to assess how these markets will react to these events, however the tone for 2017 figures is currently optimistic regardless of such instabilities in international economies.”

White Clarke discussed the report further in a video available here at through the window at the top of this page. The entire report can be downloaded here.