Core euro zone bond yields near three-week highs before ZEW survey

LONDON: Core euro zone bond yields held near three-week highs on Tuesday after investors bet on an improved outlook for the global economy, despite expectations that loose monetary policy is here to stay.

Germany's 10-year government bond yield jumped six basis points last week after a rebound in Chinese exports gave investors hope that the global economic outlook is not as bad as it first appeared. It remained near that level in early trade and was last at 0.05 pct.

Attention now turns to the ZEW German business survey for April, due later in the day, and Chinese first-quarter gross domestic product on Wednesday.

Improvement in equities and investor sentiment, diminishing Brexit-related uncertainty, prospects of a breakthrough in U.S.-China trade talks and better-than-expected China manufacturing data are likely to bolster the survey reading, UniCredit analysts said.

Chinese growth in the first quarter is forecast to have slowed to 6.3 percent, however, the slowest since the global financial crisis, a Reuters poll showed.

Mixed economic indicators mean global central banks are likely to maintain their dovish outlook, despite some promising recent data.

The European Central Bank is committed to keeping monetary policy loose until inflation returns to its target, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Monday.

Villeroy, who is also governor of the Bank of France, said that euro zone inflation was expected to ease over the course of this year, then gradually recover.

The Reserve Bank of Australia believes a cut in interest rates would be "appropriate" should inflation stay low and unemployment trend higher, the central bank's April board meeting minutes showed, though members still saw no strong case for a move anytime soon.

GREEK RECOVERY Greek bond yields held close to their lowest in nearly 14 years after falling for 13 straight trading sessions.

Greece will seek the consent this week of the European Stability Mechanism -- the euro zone's bailout fund -- to repay early International Monetary Fund loans worth about 3.7 billion euros, a source close to the process told Reuters.

Greece's benchmark 10-year government bond yield slipped three basis points to 3.27 percent, its lowest since September 2005 and approaching the record low of 3.203 percent.