The 15-nation euro rose against the U.S. dollar Thursday as gross domestic product in Germany, Europe's largest economy, grew unexpectedly strongly.

The euro bought US$1.5515 in morning European trading, up from US$1.5461 the night before in New York. The British pound rose to US$1.9461 from US$1.9441 in New York, while the dollar slipped to purchase 104.77 Japanese yen from 106.38 yen the day before.

The dollar this week had garnered some strength on positive economic news from the United states, but retreated after Germany reported GDP growth of 1.5 percent in the first quarter of 2008 over the fourth quarter of 2007.

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Traders were looking ahead for more U.S. data later in the day for direction.

"The dollar has given back some of its gains in overnight trade against both the pound and euro, but overall traders remain bullish about the outlook for the greenback," said James Hughes, a market analyst with CMC Markets. "How long this will be sustained for, however, remains to be seen with some key manufacturing data due for release from across the Atlantic."