Investing.com - The British pound gave up gains on Friday in Asia as traders digested the latest Brexit news.
The British pound rose to near a five-month high against the U.S. dollar after the European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson both confirmed via twitter that a Brexit deal had been reached.
However, the pound reversed gains after Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said it remains opposed to the proposed agreement, making it uncertain if the deal will be passed by the U.K. Parliament when it votes on Saturday.
The DUP said the proposals are not beneficial to the economic wellbeing of Northern Ireland.
The GBP/USD pair last traded at 1.2852 by 11:45 PM ET (03:45 GMT), down 0.3%.
For the week, the pound was on course for a 1.7% gain versus the dollar.
The USD/CNY pair was little changed at 7.0765. The release of China’s GDP data had little impact on the currency pair.
China’s economic growth in the third quarter slowed more than expected to 6.0% from last year, the National Bureau of Statistic reported on Friday. Analysts expected GDP to grow 6.1% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, industrial output gained 5.8% year-on-year in September, compared with a 5.0% growth expected by analysts.
Retail sales rose by 7.8% year-on-year, in line with expectations.
Fixed asset investment grew 5.4% year to date, also matching expectations.
The USD/JPY pair slipped 0.1% to 108.56.
The AUD/USD pair and the NZD/USD pair gained 0.1% and 0.4% respectively.