China’s growth may slide to 7.4 percent this quarter from a year earlier, an adviser to the nation’s central bank said, underscoring Premier Wen Jiabao’s warning that the economy’s difficulties may “persist for a while.” The possibility of a “short period” of deflation in the world’s second-largest economy can’t be ruled out, Song Guoqing, an academic member of the People’s Bank of China monetary policy committee, said at a forum in Beijing yesterday. China’s expansion slowed to 7.6 percent in the three months ending June, the sixth straight deceleration, as Europe’s fiscal crisis sapped exports and a crackdown on ... (full story)