Companies, together with private equity firms, are coming under mounting pressure to delve into a global cash mountain of $7 trillion (?4.1 trillion) that has been amassed since the dark days of the financial crisis.

As the economic recovery gets under way and factories begin to operate at full capacity, investors are growing increasingly frustrated at more than half a decade of prudence, pushing chief executives to loosen the purse strings, experts believe.

"Capital spending could increase as early indicators show that industrial companies are beginning to run at higher levels of capacity than has been the case over the last five years," Dennis Jose, senior global and European equity strategist at Barclays, said. "When factories and the like are running at less capacity on the back of lower demand there is very low capital expenditure."