FRANKFURT (AFP) - Germany's unemployment rate was steady in December, as the labour market continues to hold up in the face of a mixed economic outlook, official data showed on Tuesday.

The number of people registered as unemployed in Europe's top economy fell by 15,000 in seasonally adjusted terms last month, the Federal Labour Office said in a statement.

The unemployment rate, which measures the number of people looking for work relative to the total of people in jobs or unemployed, was unchanged at 6.9 per cent in seasonally-adjusted terms in December, the Federal Labour Office said.

"Developments on the labour market are very stable," the office said, insisting the labour market was in "fundamentally good shape." By contrast, in raw or unadjusted terms, the German jobless total increased by 66,640 people to 2.873 million and the unadjusted jobless rate increased to 6.7 percent in December from 6.5 percent in November, the office calculated.

Taking the year as a whole, the German jobless rate edged up to 6.9 per cent in 2013 from 6.8 per cent in 2012, Destatis said.