Global Supply Chain Repairs May Boost Investment Driving Growth

Repairing supply chains frayed by Japan’s earthquake and surging fuel prices may provide a further spur to business investment powering global economic growth.

Joseph Carson, director of global economic research at AllianceBernstein LP in New York, says companies exploiting new ways to ensure cost-effective delivery of raw materials and their own goods may help extend last year’s 5.4 percent surge in worldwide fixed investment. That may boost spending in the U.S. alone beyond the 8 percent he estimates for this year, double the pace of 2010 and more than three times the projected rate of consumer demand.