A slide in iron ore prices has bumped the Australian dollar back below 78 US cents.

At 7am today, the local currency was trading at 77.54 US cents, down from 78.01 cents on Friday.

Commodity prices were lower on Friday, with oil, copper and iron ore taking a tumble.

The economic calendar starts to ramp up again this week after a few quiet weeks, with a string of surveys and Australian Bureau of Statistics releases due ahead of next week's Reserve Bank board meeting.