BANGKOK (AP) -- World stock markets slid Tuesday as China's lending curbs and slower growth in South Korea added to worries the global recovery will sputter once stimulus spending fades.

Major benchmarks in Asia were down about 2 percent or more while big European bourses opened lower by nearly 1 percent. Oil fell to near $74 a barrel and the dollar rose against the euro.
China's efforts to slow the explosive growth in lending that underwrote its rapid recovery have unnerved investors, who fear such measures could be stepped up.
Unprecedented government spending and record low interest rates around the world have allowed a tentative global recovery to take shape but many worry about a relapse into recession once the stimulus impulse weakens.
More evidence that Asia's economic rebound is losing steam came Tuesday from South Korea, where fourth quarter growth slowed to just 0.2 percent because of weakness in manufacturing, construction and exports.
Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong, said uncertainty surrounding Chinese government measures to curb bank lending and cool the property sector was contributing to the selling in regional markets.