Inside Report (1)

CAPITAL SPENDING. Don't expect a boom in '82.

With a recession under way and many plants idle, business has little incentive to boost capital spending in 1982. In fact, New York's Citibank expects capital spending this year will drop 4.6 percent.

This year's projected decline follows several lackluster years. Capital spending after adjustment for inflation topped out in 1979, declined in 1980, and only inched up in 1981.

The longer-term outlook for business spending is brighter. Recent tax legislation ''should have a major impact on business investment later next year and beyond,'' say economists at the Prudential Insurance Company of America. Citibank see real capital spending jumping 6.4 percent in 1983 and 11.3 percent in 1984.