The pound was broadly unchanged on Wednesday (19 October), after hitting an eight-day high against the dollar on Wednesday (19 October), as official figures showed Britain's labour market was yet to show any sign of weakness following the pro-Brexit vote.

Having touched an 11-day high against the euro in the previous session, sterling climbed to a week high of $1.2332 soon after the release, before retreating to $1.2288 by early afternoon. The UK currency was also largely unchanged against the euro, exchanging hands at €1.1189.

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The gains came after the Office for National Statistics said the overall unemployment rate remained unchanged at a near 11-year low of 4.9% in the quarter to August, even though the number of unemployed people increased by 10,000 to 1.66m.

"Today's labour market data suggests some moderation in jobs growth since the EU referendum, but the unemployment rate remains broadly flat so there is no sign yet of major detrimental effects from the Brexit vote," said John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC.

"But it will take time for companies to adjust their hiring plans to the Brexit vote, so we could see some further slowdown in jobs growth over the next year."

Elsewhere, the dollar was broadly flat against the euro, trading at $1.0979, but slipped 0.48% against the yen to ¥103.38. The greenback was also on the back foot against its Canadian and Australian counterparts, losing 0.19% and 0.03% respectively.

However, the dollar's decline was softened by figures released earlier in the day, which allayed worries over an economic slowdown in China.

The world's second-largest economy expanded 6.7% year-on-year in the three months to the end of August, matching analysts' expectations and the growth rate witnessed in the previous two quarters.

China's National Bureau of Statistics said the world's second largest economy had performed "better than expected" in 2016, despite a slowdown in exports.

"The upshot from today's data is that economic activity seems to be holding up reasonably well, with few signs that a renewed slowdown is just around the corner," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics.

"Nonetheless, the recent recovery is ultimately on borrowed time given that it has been driven in large part by faster credit growth and a property market boom, both of which policymakers are now working to rein in."