NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The dollar rose against the pound on Wednesday after British central bank governor Mervyn King said he is open on whether to pump more money into the economy.

    The British inflation could rise above the central bank's 2 percent target in the next few months, but it would fall in medium-term, according to the quarterly inflation report released by the Bank of England on Wednesday.

    The bank expect the British economy to return to growth at the beginning of next year. It would be late 2011 before the economy recovered to the level it was before the recession.

    The British economy has "only just started" along its road to economic recovery, the Bank of England governor Mervyn King said. He said the bank was "open minded" about extending its quantitative easing program.

    The Bank of England decided to extend its quantitative easing by a further 25 billion pounds on its monetary policy meeting last Thursday.

    It has been speculated that this will be the final extension to the quantitative easing program unless the economy suffers a major relapse in 2010. But Mervyn King's comments suggested that it was too early to assume the program is over.

    The dollar fell against the euro and some other major currencies in early Wednesday trading as some U.S. Federal Reserve officials said the Fed is in no hurry to tighten monetary policy, and investors' risk appetite was boosted by strong Chinese economic data.

    The greenback regained some grounds later, nearly flat with most currencies. Trade volume was light because of the Veterans Day holiday.

    The euro bought 1.4976 dollars in late New York trading compared with 1.4978 dollars it bought late Tuesday. The pound fell to 1.6554 dollars from 1.6737 dollars.

    The dollar fell to 1.0463 Canadian dollars from 1.0496 Canadian dollars, and rose to 1.0086 Swiss francs from 1.0081 Swiss francs. It rose to 89.84 Japanese yen from 89.77 Japanese yen.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis