LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Euro zone bond yields fell on Tuesday, reversing a rise the previous day, as investors stuck to bets that interest rates will soon be falling in the single-currency bloc.

Germany's 10-year yield was last down 5 basis points (bps) at 2.023%. The yield, which moves inversely to the price, rose 6 bps on Monday after touching its lowest since March at 2.009% in the morning session.

European Central Bank officials were likely behind the moves in rates, said Jussi Hiljanen, head of European rates strategy at lender SEB.

On Tuesday, France's Francois Villeroy de Galhau said interest rates should fall some time next year and that the ECB will bring inflation back down to 2% by 2025 at "the very latest".

Greece's Yannis Stournaras struck a tougher tone on Monday, telling Reuters that inflation must be stably below 3% by the middle of next year before borrowing costs can fall.

Inflation fell faster than expected to 2.4% in November, adding fuel to the recent rally in bond markets, but many economists expect it to creep up again this year.

Italy's 10-year bond yield, seen as a benchmark for the euro zone's more indebted countries, was last down 7 bps at 3.7%. It fell to a one-year low of 3.69% on Monday before rising.

"Yesterday there was a chorus of ECB Governing Council members, even some dovish members, pushing back (against the) market's aggressive rate cut expectations," Hiljanen said.

"This morning Francois Villeroy de Galhau expressed a quite neutral view on policy outlook," he added. "He is quite influential centrist member of the GC and his comments may have contributed to ECB policy rate expectations falling just a tad after creeping higher yesterday."

German bond yields barely budged after the government said it plans to issue 440 billion euros ($481.49 billion) of debt in 2024.

Germany's budget plans have been thrown into disarray by a November court ruling that cancelled the transfer of 60 billion euros worth of pandemic-era cash to a green fund.

Germany's 2-year bond yield was last down 2 bps at 2.527%. It touched a nine-month low of 2.458% last week.

The closely watched gap between Italian and German 10-year bond yields was last at 166 bps, not far off an almost four-month low of 164 bps reached last week.

($1 = 0.9138 euros) (Reporting by Harry Robertson Editing by Bernadette Baum)