There must be more investment, and a new survey of chief financial officers, sponsored by Baruch College and Financial Executives International, suggests that there will be. Two-thirds said their companies planned to increase capital spending this year by 8 or 9 percent, a rise reminiscent of the late 1990s.
But Haas Automation in Oxnard, California, a big manufacturer of the machine tools installed in factories to cut and shape metal, expects sales to be only marginally better this year.
"Our customers are inhibited by the high cost of energy and steel," said John Roth, Haas' director of customer service, explaining the restraint he is seeing in capital spending. "They are concerned that the prices they are forced to charge make them less competitive."
Apart from capital spending, many forecasters expect contributions to growth from other sources. Exports should rise, partly in response to a weakening US dollar against the euro, the pound and the yen, and partly because Boeing is selling so many aircraft abroad.
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