Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- South Korean consumer confidence held near a five-month low as the European debt crisis threatened the global economic outlook.

The sentiment index rose to 100 in October from September’s 99, which was unchanged from a five-month low in August, the Bank of Korea said in an e-mailed statement today. A reading of 100 indicates the number of optimists is equal to the number of pessimists.

The consumer confidence index is based on survey responses from 2,056 households in 56 cities. It was conducted by mail and telephone between Oct. 14 and Oct. 21.

--Editors: Ken McCallum, Lily Nonomiya

To contact the reporter on this story: Eunkyung Seo in Seoul at eseo3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net