BERLIN - The euro hit a new five-month high against the dollar on Wednesday as persistent worries about a weakening recovery weighed on the U.S. currency, while the European Commission proposed new penalties for overspending countries. The euro rose as high as $1.3638 in European trading before settling back to $1.3613. That was up from its previous five-month high of $1.3595 on Tuesday. The dollar has declined recently because investors expect the Federal Reserve will take more action to support the U.S. economy — effectively bringing down interest rates and making the U.S. currency less appealing to investors. On Tuesday, two surveys suggested that U.S. shoppers are increasingly downbeat about the economy while top business executives remain cautious and are increasingly likely to cut back on hiring plans. The euro has risen even as fears about the 16-nation eurozone's debt crisis flare anew. On Wednesday, the European Union's executive Commission proposed new penalties for countries that spend too much in the hope of preventing another government debt crisis like the one that forced an international financial bailout of Greece. But in an illustration of the difficulties policymakers face, tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into Brussels to protest planned spending cuts by governments seeking to bring down their budget deficits. Elsewhere, Greek doctors and railway employees walked out and Spanish workers shut down trains and buses. In other trading Wednesday, the British pound traded above $1.58 before falling back to $1.5794 — close to the $1.5793 it bought in New York Tuesday. The dollar fell to 83.67 Japanese yen from 83.93 yen.

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