May 20 (Reuters) - Euro zone sovereign bond yields rose on Monday after officials from the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve warned that the monetary easing path remained uncertain.
U.S. Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said late on Friday that she has seen no improvement in inflation this year and remains willing to hike rates should progress stall or reverse.
Germany's 2-year government bond yield, more sensitive to policy rate expectations, hit a fresh 2-1/2 week high of 3.008%, and was last up one basis point (bp) at 2.99%.
Markets are pricing in around 65 bps of ECB rate cuts in 2024 compared with 67 bps on Friday. They discounted 73 bps on May 15 and 75 bps early this month.
Germany's 10-year yield, the benchmark for the bloc, rose 2.5 bps to 2.54%.
Italy's 10-year yield was up 3 bps at 3.84%.
The yield gap between Italian and German bonds - a gauge of the risk premium investors seek to hold bonds of the euro area's most indebted countries - was at 128 bps. (Reporting by Stefano Rebaudo, editing by Kirsten Donovan)
