(Bloomberg News) From the U.S. to Germany and even Japan, where the bond market is twice the size of the economy, investors can't get enough government securities even though rising debt loads are blamed for curbing global growth.

For the first time since the financial crisis in 2008, all 26 markets tracked by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies are poised to generate positive returns on an annual basis. Gains this year range from Portugal's 47 percent to Japan's 1.78 percent.

After years of spending to bolster their economies, governments are getting a handle on their borrowing at the same time central banks are taking new steps to cap bond yields and inflation slows. The par amount of debt tracked by Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Global Sovereign Broad Market Plus Index has risen 7.3 percent this year to $23.6 trillion, the smallest increase since 2005, when it fell 3.7 percent.

"The longer-term bull market in government bonds is still intact all over the world," Howard Simons, a Bianco Research LLC strategist in Chicago, said in a Nov. 2 telephone interview.

Government bonds have returned 31 percent since mid-2007, with reinvested interest based on the Bank of America Merrill Lynch index, while the MSCI All-Country World Index of stocks has lost 4.2 percent with dividends. The Standard & Poor's GSCI Total Return Index of 24 raw materials has dropped 21 percent.

'Deflationary Force'

Even though stocks have gained 13 percent this year, debt investors have been willing to accept lower interest rates to hold government debt because of slower inflation in the face of unprecedented central bank stimulus. The average bond yield has dropped to 1.44 percent from 1.76 percent on Dec. 31, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show.

"We still have a massive deflationary force," said Michael Quach, the global investment analyst for Smith & Williamson Investment Management Ltd. in London, which oversees the equivalent of $19.4 billion. "You also have very low interest-rate policies in most developed nations."

Morgan Stanley economists led by Joachim Fels in London wrote in an Oct. 31 report they see global consumer prices rising 3.4 percent this year, down from 4.4 percent in 2011. They predict an even smaller increase of 3.2 percent next year.

In the world's biggest economy, inflation as measured by the U.S. personal consumption expenditures index, a gauge preferred by Federal Reserve, rose 1.3 percent in the third- quarter from a year earlier, below the 1.9 percent average of the past 20 years, data from the Commerce Department shows.

Rally Missed

Wage growth is slowing, with a report from the Labor Department on Nov. 2 showing average hourly earnings for America's workers climbed 1.6 percent in October from a year earlier, the smallest gain since records began in 2007.

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