Dollar rises on European economy fears

    NEW YORK, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The dollar rose against the euro and pound on Wednesday amid signs that financial market turmoil was starting to threaten economic growth of Europe.

    A latest report showed that the index of business confidence of Germany, the largest economy of euro zone, hit its lowest point since January 2006.

    Any slowdown could curb the European Central Bank's ability to raise interest rates from their current 4 percent.

    Bank of England policymakers all agreed to cut interest rate at a meeting earlier this month, according to minutes of the meeting published on Wednesday.

    The sterling pound fell below the 2.00 dollars threshold for the first time since September with traders pricing in another rate cut.

    The euro bought 1.4381 dollars in late New York trading, down from 1.4408 dollars Tuesday. The pound was down to 1.9966 dollars from 2.0133 dollars.

    The dollar bought 113.35 Japanese yen, up from 113.31 yen the day before. It rose to 1.1553 Swiss francs from 1.1522 francs, and fell to 1.0035 Canadian dollars from 1.0054 Tuesday.