NEW YORK, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar fell against major currencies in late New York trading on Wednesday as U.S. producer prices rose in July and the minutes of Bank of England monetary policy meeting showed that the decision to keep interest rate unchanged was unanimous.

The U.S. Labor Department said U.S. producer prices rose 0.2 percent in July, driven by higher costs for food, trucks and pharmaceuticals. Core prices, which excluded volatile food and energy components, jumped 0.4 percent last month for their eighth consecutive gain.

The higher-than-expected producer prices lowered the possibility that the Federal Reserve will carry out further monetary easing policy, or the third round quantitative easing policy.

The dollar index dipped 0.4 percent to 73.71.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England released the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting. It showed that all nine members of the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee agreed to hold the key lending rate at a record low of 0.5 percent.

The British pound rose more than 0.6 percent against the greenback on Wednesday.

In late Wednesday trading, the dollar bought 76.48 yen, comparing with 76.78 yen late Tuesday, and the euro rose to 1.4451 dollars from 1.4397.

The British pound also rose to 1.6566 dollars from 1.6457. The dollar fell from 0.7938 Swiss francs to 0.7895, and also fell to 0. 9805 Canadian dollars from 0.9830.