* Canadian dollar at C$$1.1007, or 90.85 U.S. cents
* Bond prices higher across the maturity curve
By Solarina Ho
TORONTO, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar retreated
against the greenback on Monday as commodity prices softened on
Chinese demand concerns and after Bank of Canada comments that
indicated the bank may be in no hurry to raise interest rates
despite higher inflation data.
Over the weekend, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said
that the Canadian economy still had a significant amount of room
to grow, noting that the higher inflation over the past half
year was not trend-driven.
"There were some comments by Governor Poloz over weekend at
the G20, where he attributed some of the increase in core
inflation to one-off factors," said Mark Chandler, head of
Canadian fixed income and currency strategy at RBC Capital
Markets.
"More broadly, we continue to see commodity prices weaken
and that's not helpful for the Canadian dollar either."
As an exporter of oil and other natural resources, the
Canadian dollar is sensitive to commodity prices and to the
moves of other commodities-driven currencies.
At 9:36 a.m. EDT (1336 GMT), the Canadian dollar,
which was underperforming most major currencies, was trading at
C$1.1007 to the U.S. dollar, or 90.85 U.S. cents, weaker than
Friday's close of C$1.0947, or 91.35 U.S. cents.
The Australian dollar fell to a multi-month low overnight,
hurt by comments from China's finance minister on Sunday in
which he said the country would not dramatically alter its
economic policy because of any one economic indicator.
Meanwhile, the market also worried that manufacturing data
coming out on Tuesday from China, the world's second largest
economy and one of the world's largest commodities consumers,
will likely show stalled growth.
A speech expected by Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor
Carolyn Wilkins on Monday on monetary policy could get some
market attention, Chandler said.
Canadian government bond prices were higher across the
maturity curve, with the two-year up 1 Canadian cent
to yield 1.167 percent and the benchmark 10-year
rising 19 Canadian cents to yield 2.230 percent.
(Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Peter Galloway)