Leasing used for only 6% of investments

Romania ranks just above the bottom place among European states in terms of investments funded in leasing, with a mere 6.34%, less than half of the European average of 14.78%, reveals the annual report of the European Federation of Leasing Associations (Leaseurope), which uses data from 2004. The bottom ranking country is Malta, with 6.07%. Other countries whose situations are comparable with Romania”s are the Netherlands (6.56%), Greece (6.81%) and Norway (7.59%). The top three countries are Estonia, Portugal and the UK, with 32.47%, 24.86% and 24.49% respectively. Romania lags far behind Hungary (21.99%), Slovenia (19.84%), Czech Republic (16.23%) and Poland (10.93%). Romania ranks 25th in terms of the volume of leasing operations concluded din 2004, due to its 841 million euros. The countries on the bottom positions in this regard are Estonia, 730 million euros and Malta – 584.5 million euros. Germany, Italy and France (44.4bn euros, 38bn euros and 26.9bn euros) have the largest leasing markets in Europe. ZF