By Mayank Bhardwaj

NEW DELHI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Thai raw sugar discounts held steady this week even as China bought some of the sweetener from Bangkok after Beijing lowered its output forecasts and stepped up overseas purchases, mostly from the world's top producer Brazil.

"Only a little bit of Thai sugar has been transacted for the Chinese market which has mostly been buying Brazilian sugar for the past two-three weeks," said a dealer.

Sugar output in China's top growing region of Guangxi, which accounts for two-thirds of cane output, is seen falling a sharper-than-expected 16 percent to 7.2 million tonnes in the 2014/15 marketing year.

China's total sugar output is seen around 12 million tonnes, down nearly 10 percent from 13.3 million tonnes during 2013/14, potentially further boosting imports, which have been high as modern refineries import cheaper raw sugar from overseas.

Thai high-polarisation, or hipol, raw sugar was quoted at 95 points below the New York March contract, compared with discounts of 90-95 points the week before.

On Monday, March ICE raw sugar futures dropped 0.7 percent to settle at 15.93 cents a lb, pressured by the stronger dollar and the prospect of new harvests in Asia.

It is a little early to hazard a guess about China's imports this year, said another dealer.

"When we try to figure out China's imports this year, we've to keep in mind two facts - large stocks that the country has and its annual 1.95 million tonnes of imports under a WTO rule," he said.

But Australia's Green Pool Commodities has estimated 3.3 million tonnes of imports by China in the 2014/15 season against 3.4 million tonnes in the previous year. In 2012/13, China had imported 4.7 million tonnes of the sweetener.

Discounts for low-quality Thai raws, favoured by Japanese buyers and known as J-spec, were also at 95 points to New York's March contract, unchanged from the previous week.

Thai white sugar premiums remained unchanged at $12 a tonne to London futures but there was no trade.

December white sugar settled up 30 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $422.70 a tonne on Monday.

Separately, India is likely to export up to 1.5 million tonnes of sugar in 2014/15 if the government extends incentives for exports of the raw variety, Yatin Wadhwana, managing director of Sucden India Pvt Ltd, told the Reuters Global Commodities Summit. (Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)