Capital Expenditures Down for 4th Year

John Wolz

For the fourth straight year the pace of spending on capital expenditures slowed in 2002, but the industry projects an increase for 2003.
At 2.6 the FIN Survey index on capital expenditures was down only slightly from 2.7 for 2001. But the 2001 figure was a big drop from 3.2 for 2000. It had been 3.4 in 1999 after 3.6 in 1998.
At the beginning of 2002 the industry had forecast 2.9 for the year. For 2003 the industry overall expects to increase capital expenditures at a 3.2 pace. However, a 51.1% majority plan to keep their capital expenditures the same as 2002.

Capital Expenditure Index

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