U.S. companies borrowed 3 percent less in December to finance their investments in equipment, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) said on Tuesday, as inflation and Omicron cloud economic outlook. Firms signed up for $11.8 billion in new loans, leases, and lines of credit last month, compared with $12.1 billion a year earlier. Borrowings, however, rose 49 percent from November. “The outlook for the industry, and indeed overall economy, is somewhat cloudy, with unabated inflation, the Fed poised to increase interest rates, equities markets in a recent tailspin,” ELFA Chief Executive Officer Ralph Petta said in a statement, adding that the Omicron coronavirus variant remains a concern in the United States. ELFA, which reports economic activity for the nearly $1-trillion equipment finance sector, said credit approvals totaled 78.6 percent, down from 77.2 percent in November. The Washington-based body’s leasing and finance index measures the volume of commercial equipment financed …