* Asian equities follow falls on Wall Street, Europe
* Yen rebounds as sliding Treasury yields drag on dollar
* Oil hits new lows, investors wager on slowing world inflation
By Wayne Cole
SYDNEY, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Asian stocks slid on Wednesday as worries about waning global growth lifted safe-haven bonds and the yen, while shoving oil prices to their lowest in more than two years.
Government bonds were in big demand as investors wagered global inflation would continue to slow and even put off the day when U.S. interest rates might rise.
Minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting are due later in the session and markets will be acutely sensitive to how the debate between hawks and doves on the committee was playing out.
In Asia, Japan's Topix shed 1.6 percent while the Nikkei dropped 1.4 percent.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.4 percent, while Australia's main index lost 1.1 percent.
Dealers were now waiting anxiously to see how China's markets react as they return from a week-long break. China also has the only major piece of economic news in the region with the release of the HSBC PMI for the services sector.
Traders will be hoping the figures are better than Tuesday's dismal selection. German industrial output fell 4.0 percent in the biggest decline since the height of the financial crisis, piling yet more pressure on the European Central Bank to be more urgent in its actions.
At the same time, the IMF shaved its global growth forecast to 3.3 percent for this year, from 3.4 percent, warning of weakness in core euro zone countries, Japan and big emerging markets such as Brazil.
"Weak numbers like the German production report fuel concern that ECB stimulus will be inadequate given the gloomier news," said Westpac analyst James Shugg.
"With the IMF waving its knife at its global growth forecasts, U.S. markets couldn't avoid the downdraft either."
The Dow fell 1.6 percent, while the S&P 500 lost 1.51 percent and the Nasdaq 1.56 percent. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 also shed 1.5 percent.
The small-cap Russell 2000 ended near a one-year low as investors reined in riskier bets ahead of this week's start of third-quarter earnings reports.
WHAT INFLATION?
Inflation swaps for the euro zone, which essentially show what investors think inflation will average over the next five years, have been in precipitous decline, touching an historic low of 1.89 percent this week.
This is one of ECB President Mario Draghi's favoured measures of inflation and its decline was a major reason the central bank launched a fresh stimulus package last month.