OTTAWA, Feb 11 - The prices of new homes in Canada in December rose 0.3 percent due to higher labor and material costs, down from November's 0.7 percent rise, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday. Some analysts had expected new housing prices to rise 0.4 percent on a monthly basis. On Monday, Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Paul Jenkins said economic production and demand data in the past two weeks had been softer than expected but that the central bank was keeping to its 2.75 percent growth forecast. Year on year, new home prices were up 5.0 percent, unchanged from November's annual increase. Thirteen of the 21 cities surveyed showed monthly increases.||www.reuetrs.com