Consumer sentiment has improved for the fifth month in a row, but Koreans still appear to be pessimistic about economic prospects.
 
The Bank of Korea said Thursday that the composite consumer sentiment index was 106 in November, up one point from October.
 
The index fell as low as 99 in June due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, but steadily rose from July. The November reading was the highest since September 2014.
 
A central bank official attributed the improvement to government-led measures to boost consumption, such as the Korea Black Friday discount event.
 
But indexes measuring how households view the current economic situation mostly fell.
 
The economic judgment index, which compares household perception of the current state of the economy to six months ago, fell two points from the previous month. The future economic outlook index, which measures perceived prospects for the economy six months from now, also fell two points.
 
The BOK surveyed two-thousand-200 households throughout the country between November 12 to 19. Two-thousand-14 households responded.