Investing.com - The euro remained higher against the dollar on Wednesday as slightly stronger than forecast Chinese first quarter growth data supported market sentiment.
EUR/USD hit session highs of 1.3850 and was last up 0.15% to 1.3836.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3805, the session low and resistance at 1.3862, Monday’s high.
Investor sentiment was buoyed after official data released on Wednesday showed that China’s gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 7.4% in the first three months of 2014, slowing from 7.7% in the fourth quarter, but slightly ahead of expectations for growth of 7.3%.
In the euro zone, data on Wednesday confirmed that the annual rate of inflation slowed to 0.5% in March from 0.7% the previous month, the lowest since November 2009.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile items like food and energy costs, fell to 0.7% from 1.0% in February, matching the record low reached in December 2013.
Euro zone inflation has now been in the European Central Bank's danger zone of below 1% for six straight months, fuelling speculation that policymakers will need to implement fresh stimulus measures to shore up the fragile recovery in the euro area.
Over the weekend, ECB President Mario Draghi that further gains in the euro would trigger additional monetary easing to keep inflation from falling.
"A strengthening of the exchange rate requires further monetary stimulus. That is an important dimension for our price stability," he said.
Elsewhere, the euro was higher against the softer yen, with EUR/JPY rising 0.47% to 141.42.
The shared currency fell to one-week lows against the pound, with EUR/GBP down 0.25% to 0.8239.
Sterling strengthened across the board after data on Wednesday showed that the U.K. unemployment rate fell to a five year low of 6.9% in the three months to February, bolstering the outlook for the wider economic recovery.