(Repeats Monday report)
* European inflation rates: http://link.reuters.com/nup25w
* Euro inflation, commodities: http://link.reuters.com/nuj24s
* Emerging market inflation: http://link.reuters.com/gat89s
By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - Fear of falling prices in a debt-laden world has returned to unnerve investors and central banks alike, as the slide on oil and commodity markets that set off a deflation scare last year has resumed with a vengeance.
This summer's Shanghai stock market shock is also deepening anxiety that a cooling of the Chinese economy will lead to sharply lower global growth, while weak consumer prices are undermining assumptions that U.S. interest rates will soon rise.
By this spring, the deflation scare had been fading, with investors confident the plunge in oil prices was over. They moved out of the safety of government bonds, pushing up yields in the hope that easy central bank money would gradually reflate the world economy. Victory over deflation could then be declared.
However, the Thomson Reuters Commodity Research Bureau index has plummeted 10 percent in July to its lowest level since the nadir of the global recession in early 2009.
Crucially, this benchmark index has breached the lows it hit in March, casting doubt on expectations that raw materials costs would soon cease to drag down annual consumer inflation rates.
"We're worried that the recent weakness in commodity prices could signal a loss of momentum in global growth that we're not projecting," said Bruce Kasman, global chief economist at JP Morgan in New York.
JP Morgan has yet to adjust its official projections, but Kasman said global growth in the second quarter is estimated at only 2 percent, a percentage point below his forecast at the start of the quarter.
Prolonged deflation is damaging, especially for the developed economies where household, corporate and government debt remains so high. If consumer prices fall, the real value of this debt rises, making it increasingly difficult to repay.
Consumer inflation is already near zero across the world. Even the recoveries underway in the United States, Britain and continental Europe do not seem strong enough to generate significant price pressures as economies in the emerging world, led by China, slow sharply.
This complicates - and possibly delays - interest rate rises planned by the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of England, which markets had assumed would happen by early 2016.
The dollar and sterling have risen in anticipation of higher rates, moves that are themselves deflationary as they lower the price of imports. "Lower goods prices and a stronger dollar could slow the Fed's path. The dollar matters," said Kasman.