(Adds background, analyst comments)
Aug 27 (Reuters) - China's net gold imports via main conduitHong Kong fell about 45 percent in July from the previous monthamid lacklustre demand, data showed on Monday.
Imports via Hong Kong fell to 44.802 tonnes in July from80.867 tonnes in June, according to data from the Hong KongCensus and Statistics Department.
Total gold imports via Hong Kong also plunged 45 percent to48.635 tonnes in July from 88.608 tonnes in June.
Benchmark spot gold prices registered a 2.3 percentdecline in July.
"Since the SGE (Shanghai Gold Exchange) premium was low (inJuly), the domestic banks did not have high incentives to importgold, especially as the physical demand has not been great,"said Samson Li, a Hong Kong-based senior analyst at ThomsonReuters GFMS.
In June, China's net gold imports via Hong Kong jumped 40.3percent month-on-month to their highest since March 2017. China does not provide trade data on gold, and the Hong Kongfigures serve as a proxy for flows to the mainland.
The Hong Kong data, however, might not provide a fullpicture of Chinese purchases as gold is also imported viaShanghai and Beijing.
(Reporting by Sumita Layek in Bengaluru, Editing by SherryJacob-Phillips and Gopakumar Warrier)
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