LONDON -

This week, White Clarke Group released its 20th annual Global Leasing Report, what the company contends is the only guide to the top 50 leasing markets in the world, summarizes leasing volumes and other market trends.

Officials highlighted the report reveals an optimistic industry outlook with positive growth and continued confidence.

White Clarke Group calculated overall global volumes reached the $1 trillion milestone as leasing “finally shrugged off the effects of the great recession, with growth in the industry outperforming that of the overall economy.”

The report showed North America remained top of the world’s largest leasing regions, increasing its lead on Europe, and the United States remained the world’s largest leasing market by double-digit growth.

Analysts said Europe performed well as its two largest and most mature leasing countries, U.K. and Germany, continued to improve, with the U.K. achieving a 14-percent increase. The rise within both of these markets was driven in part by auto finance.

White Clarke Group went on to mention Asia showed the fastest growth of any region as China continued its rapid rise towards top place, expanding its leasing market more than 25 percent in one year. Business volumes were driven by infrastructure, manufacturing and a resilient car market.

White Clarke Group chief executive officer Brendan Gleeson said, “2016 brought some significant economic and political events, namely Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president. Both events have brought short-term volatility on the global foreign exchange and stock markets.

“It is too early to assess how these events impact upon the economies of the world and the global leasing industry in the medium term, but there may be some resulting economic instability in 2017,” Gleeson added.

The report can be downloaded here. Analysts also discussed the report in a video available here and at the topic of this page.