LONDON: Benchmark German government bond yields dropped to its lowest in 20 months as investors piled into one of the safest assets in the world on the back of widening stock market weakness and a gloomy global growth outlook.

The yield on Germany's 10-year government debt briefly dropped to 0.17 percent, its lowest since April 2017, before edging up to 0.183 percent, down six basis points on the day.

The gap between German 2-year and 10-year bond yields were at their tightest since November 2016 at 79.90 basis points