It's been a bit of a down and up day....>

EGB SUMMARY: It's been a bit of a down and up day for EGBs today. The day

started with Bunds on the backfoot after better than expected Chinese GDP growth

overnight, which printed at 6.4%, 0.1ppt above expectations of 6.3%.

- The main story of the afternoon session has been the widening of BTP-Bund

spreads after Bloomberg headlines quoted an official as saying that Salvini had

ruled out a VAT increase. This follows up yesterday's Bank of Italy deficit

targets which are over 3%/GDP for both 2020 and 2021 without a VAT hike.

- Bund futures are down -0.18 today at 164.42 with 10y Bund yields up 1.1bp at

0.076% and Schatz yields down -0.2bp at -0.577%.

- BTP futures are down -0.24 today at 129.72 with 10y yields up 3.6bp at 2.628%

and 2y yields up 3.0bp at 0.516%.

- OAT futures are down -0.04 today at 161.22 with 10y yields unch at 0.418% and

2y yields down -0.2bp at -0.514%.

- Other peripheral spreads are mixed on the day.