Official tells MPs euro failure remote

A dissolution of the eurozone is highly unlikely but is not in the realms of impossibility, a top official at the Office for Budget Responsibility told MPs yesterday.

Stephen Nickell, a former member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee who now works for the fiscal watchdog, told the Treasury Select Committee that the OBR may have to take into account "very low" growth in the eurozone in its next forecasts before the budget in March.

Some commentators have raised the possibility that the euro may not be able to survive the sovereign debt crisis.

"Of course, there's a possibility that it [the euro] will collapse but, at the moment, it's not something to which I'd assign a very high probability," he said.