Portugal's monthly unemployment rate edged higher to 6.7% in December from a revised reading of 6.5% in November, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said in its flash estimate on Tuesday.

The labour underutilisation rate rose to 12.1% from 11.9% in the previous month.

The youth unemployment rate (16-24 years old) decreased to 18.5% in December, from 19.0% in the previous month and from 20.7% a year ago, the INE said. (Reporting by Tiago Brandao, editing by Andrei Khalip)