A report has been released by Leaseurope, the trade association representing the European leasing and automotive rental industries in conjunction with expert economic consultancy Oxford Economics. Based on a survey held in July 2011, the report analyses the use of leasing amongst small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Europe.
Across 8 countries and 9 industrial sectors, just under 3,000 SMEs were surveyed, spanning Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, France, Sweden, Poland and Netherlands. Together, they account for 78% of the European leasing market and 83% of the total EU economic output.
One of the key findings of the report was that European SMEs use leasing more than any other form of bank lending. 40% of the SMEs surveyed had used leasing some time in 2010, a figure which is expected to rise to 43% in 2011. In 2010, the total SME investment that was financed by leasing was 16.7%, which is also expected to rise to 18.6% in 2011.
Compare this to the figure of 12.9% in 2010 of all size of businesses in the same countries, and you can see the clearly SMEs are utilising leasing more than their larger corporate counterparts.
