(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window) March 16 (Reuters) - European stocks rose on Tuesday as German online fashion retailer Zalando and carmaker Volkswagen jumped following upbeat earnings forecasts, while investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve’s views on a recent pick-up in inflation. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4%, crawling closer to a record peak set last year and tracking an overnight rally on Wall Street on optimism about an eventual economic recovery from the pandemic lows. Zalando jumped 4.4% after it forecast 2021 revenue growth above market expectations following a strong start to the year. Its shares touched a three-week high and lifted the wider retail index. Volkswagen AG was up 3.8% after the world’s second-largest carmaker said it was confident that cost cuts will help it improve profit margins in the coming years. The German DAX rose 0.5%, while UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 gained 0.6% as a weaker pound boosted the dollar earners on the index. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)