* Asian equities follow Wall Street, Europe lower
* Yen holds gains 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 fell 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 1.5 percent while the Nikkei dropped 1.4 percent.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.8 percent, while Australia's main index lost 0.7 percent.
China's markets were relatively steady as they returned from a week-long break, with Shanghai flat, but Hong Kong shed 0.7 percent.
A private survey of China's services sector showed growth eased a touch in September, but that only served to reinforce expectations of further stimulus measures by Beijing.
Stimulus is also very much on the cards in Europe after German industrial output suffered the biggest decline since the height of the financial crisis, piling pressure on the European Central Bank to be more urgent in its actions.
The IMF on Tuesday shaved its global growth forecast to 3.3 percent for this year, from 3.4 percent, warning of weakness in the euro zone, Japan and big emerging markets such as Brazil.
The IMF sees a 30 percent chance that the euro zone will fall into deflation and a nearly 40 percent risk it will slide into a recession over the next year. Data on Tuesday signalled Japan may already be in a mild recession.
"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.
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.