Two-thirds of South Korean firms plan to increase their spending on facility investment this year, a survey by the central bank showed Monday, as the nation's exports show signs of a recovery.

The Bank of Korea said in a statement that 66.7 percent of the 271 manufacturers checked said they will invest more in facilities this year than in 2016. 

The remaining 33.7 percent responded that their facility investment would fall in 2017, compared with last year.

Of the firms that plan to increase facility investment this year, 33.9 percent said their investment would grow by more than 5 percent, compared with 23.7 percent of the firms that increased their investment by more than 5 percent last year, according to the latest findings.

Of the firms that plan to cut their facility investment, 16.3 percent said their investment would be slashed by more than 5 percent, compared with 25.9 percent of the firms that cut their investment by more than 5 percent last year.

Still, the survey indicated that manufacturers' investment sentiment does not seem to be in full recovery mode.

Most firms said they plan to increase facility investment for maintenance or production efficiency, rather than boosting their overall production capacity.

In January, the central bank revised down its growth forecast for this year to 2.5 percent this year, from 2.8 percent, citing a weaker domestic consumption and a slower recovery in the global economy.

The central bank's growth estimate is lower than the government's forecast of 2.6 percent growth released at the end of last year.

But exports are showing signs of a rebound. In the first 20 days of this month, South Korea's exports jumped 14.8 percent on-year, customs data showed last week.

The total outbound shipments reached $27.3 billion during the 20-day period, up from $23.8 billion tallied over the same period last year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service. (Yonhap)