Worldwide leasing business volume grew by 21.9% to $724bn (534bn) in 2011 despite a "torrent of bad financial news" during the year, according to the White Clark Group (WCG) Global Leasing Report.
The report highlighted the "resilience" of the industry, with wide improvement across the 50 countries covered in 2011, and a huge reversal of the contraction shown by most of the top 10 countries in 2009.
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In 2009 nine of those 10 countries, which represent 80% of global leasing volume, experienced a slump in new business volumes, with the exception being China, but by 2011 the only one not growing was Italy.
Of the 50 countries covered, 24 reported double-digit increases in new business, with five, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia, showing an increase of more than 50%, although Russia is the only one of these with more than $5bn annual volume.
Over the same period 12 countries reported a decrease in new business, with seven, Brazil, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Mexico, Portugal and Spain, showing double digit decline.
The US was the top leasing economy in 2011, with $268.8bn of leasing volume, over four times more than second and third largest, China and Germany, with $60.4bn and $60.1bn respectively. Also in the top five were Japan with $59.3bn and France with $33.3bn of annual leasing volume.
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By GlobalDataIn North America, leasing volume grew by 37.1% to $292bn, driven by 38.9% growth in the US and 24% in Canada. New leasing volumes were higher than their pre-recession peak, driving an increase in world market share to 40.4%.
European growth accelerated from just 0.5% in 2010 to 7.2% in 2011, with Germany contributing almost a quarter of the region’s $249.8bn volume.
This was eclipsed by growth in Asia, which was up to 26.9%, pushing up the region’s world share to 18.5%.
Outside of Europe, Asia and North America, six Latin American and four African countries, plus Australia and New Zealand, figure in the top 50 for 2011. Between them Australia and New Zealand make up 1.7% of world trade.
Although Latin American volumes grew by 8.3%, world market share declined to 3.8%, while the emergent African leasing industry represents just 1% of global volume.
WCG also compared global leasing penetration rates, with the US still in top spot, followed by Japan, Germany, Korea and the UK.
Commenting on the report, author and WCG chairman Ed White said: "It is worth remembering that the year suffered a relentless torrent of bad financial news.
"And yet global new business volumes grew by more than one fifth. It comes as no surprise that China’s leasing sector played a major role fuelling the country’s remarkable economic growth. More extraordinary, is the strong growth exhibited by the most mature and the largest leasing region, North America. At 37%, its new business growth is the highest percentage increase achieved for more than 30 years."
The full report is from the White Clarke Group website.
