(Bloomberg) -- International investors stormed into the Canadian debt market for the first time in three months in May, seeking fatter returns than the sub-zero yields on offer from Europe to Japan.

Non-resident investors added a net C$14.78 billion ($11.3 billion) in Canadian debt in May, the second highest mark in 18 months, according to Statistics Canada.

Canadian bonds are among the most attractive options for investors facing more than $25 trillion of bonds with negative real yields globally. With the country’s C$2.2 trillion economy picking up, the Bank of Canada is resisting the dovish tilt in Europe and the U.S.

Canada’s 10-year benchmark government bond is yielding about 1.61% compared with -.26% for similar duration German debt and -0.12% of notes issued by the Japanese treasury.

Flows have also risen as Canadian issuers have sold $91.8 billion of debt in currencies other than the loonie this year, just $3 billion shy of the record over the same period last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

So far this week, Bank of Nova Scotia turned to the U.S. dollar market with its first green bond, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce sold floating-rate notes in U.S. dollars and earlier Tuesday Royal Bank of Canada sold senior bail-in bonds in euros.

--With assistance from Erik Hertzberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Esteban Duarte in Toronto at eduarterubia@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nikolaj Gammeltoft at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Thorpe, Allan Lopez

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