Business Spending Boom Seen

WASHINGTON — Businesses enjoying a boom in export sales plan to modernize and expand at the fastest rate in four years, the government said today.

The Commerce Department said a survey completed in May showed that U.S. companies plan to spend $435.2 billion on capital projects, an 11.9% increase over last year’s spending of $388.8 billion. If realized, it would be the biggest gain in plant and equipment spending since 1984, when spending shot up 16.6% as businesses recovered from the 1981-82 recession. The rate of increase would be seven times greater than the anemic 1.7% gain posted in 1987.