May 30 (Reuters) - Euro zone benchmark Bund yields traded near a six-month high on Thursday ahead of key inflation data due on Friday, which could confirm bets that the European Central Bank (ECB) is ready to cut interest rates next week.

Investors were taking a breather as markets await the inflation figures from the euro zone as well as the latest U.S. consumer price expenditure (PCE) index - the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge - both due on Friday.

Germany's 10-year yield, the euro zone's benchmark, edged one basis point (bp) lower to 2.67%, having touched its highest level since mid-November at 2.691%.

It had surged on Wednesday, while Italian BTPs reached 4%, after German inflation rose slightly more than forecast and a Fed official said he didn’t rule out a rate hike.

Ahead of euro zone-wide figures, data on Thursday showed that Spain's inflation rate rose to 3.8% in the 12 months through May, above the 3.7% average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters.

The ECB holds its policy meeting next week and is widely expected to cut rates by 25 bps.

Money markets have priced in 58 bps of ECB monetary easing in 2024, implying two rate cuts and an around 30% chance of a third move by year-end.

"The ECB will not commit to a specific sequence of rate cuts and will remain fully data-dependent," said Christoph Rieger, head of rates and credit research at Commerzbank.

"The rate cut will also not be described as monetary easing or normalisation, but rather as a reduction in the degree of restriction," he added.

Germany's two-year government bond yield, which is more sensitive to policy rate expectations, was also down 1 bp at 3.09%.

Investors were also digesting U.S. economic data. The world's largest economy grew more slowly than previously estimated in the first quarter, data showed, suggesting the Fed is firmly on track to cut interest rates this year.

U.S. jobless claims, meanwhile, rose to a seasonally adjusted 219,000 for the week ended May 25. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 218,000 claims in the latest week.

Italy's 10-year yield dropped 2.8 bps to 3.97%.

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, tightened slightly to 130 bps. (Reporting by Stefano Rebaudo and Joice Alves; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Mark Potter)