Asia Gold-Lower prices buoy activity in top hubs; Indian demand slows

* Premiums in India at $1/oz vs $2 last week

* China premiums at $18-$22 an ounce this week

* Jewellers need to build inventory for upcoming festive season- New-Delhi based dealer

By Rajendra Jadhav and Ashitha Shivaprasad

Sept 8 (Reuters) - Physical gold demand in some Asian hubs remained firm this week as lower prices lured buyers, although an uptick in domestic rates restrained purchases in India.

In top consumer China, premiums stayed elevated at $18-$22 an ounce over the international benchmark, compared with $16-$25 last week.

"Despite some draconian measures in response to the re-emergence of COVID, Chinese physical gold demand remains robust," said independent analyst Ross Norman.

"A good proxy for Chinese domestic demand is withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange which posted the second highest figure of the year."

Singapore gold premiums were little changed at $1.60-$2.20 this week, compared with premiums of $1.50-$2.30 last week. In Hong Kong, gold was sold at flat to $2 premiums.

Retail investors are taking the opportunity to buy gold as prices have lowered, and this is likely to continue, said Brian Lan, managing director at dealer GoldSilver Central.

In India, dealers were charging a premium of up to $1 an ounce over official domestic prices — inclusive of the 15% import and 3% sales levies, down from last week's $2 premium.

"Jewellers took a pause. Even retail demand wasn't as great as expected," said a Mumbai-based bullion dealer with a private gold importing bank.

Local gold prices were trading around 50,700 rupees per 10 grams on Friday afternoon, after falling to 49,876 last week, the lowest since July 21.

Jewellers need to build inventory for the upcoming festive season since they were not active in the market last month, said a New-Delhi based bullion dealer.

India's gold imports in August halved from a year earlier to 61 tonnes as volatile local prices and a weak rupee prompted consumers to postpone purchases.

In Japan, the metal was sold between at par to spot prices to a $0.50 premium, unchanged from last week. (Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad, Eileen Soreng, Arundhati Sarkar and Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru, Rajendra Jhadav in Mumbai; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)