Greek exit from euro inevitable: Greenspan

[LONDON] Greece will have to leave the eurozone sooner or later, the former head of the United States central bank Alan Greenspan said on Sunday.

The comments come after a diplomatic blitz by Greece's new anti-austerity government to try to renegotiate a new debt deal amid fears Greece could default on its loans.

"It is a crisis and I don't see it being resolved easily, in fact I don't see it being resolved without Greece leaving the eurozone," the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve told BBC radio.

"I don't see that it helps them to be in the euro and I certainly don't see how it helps the rest of the eurozone. And I think it's just a matter of time before everyone realises that parting is the best strategy." Greenspan, who was head of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, said that the eurozone could not continue in its current form without political integration.

The new government led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his radical left Syriza party was elected last month on a platform of ending austerity and easing Greece's crushing debt burden.

But Germany and the European Central Bank have indicated there is little room for manouevre on the terms of country's 240-billion-euro (US$275 billion) EU-IMF rescue deal.

AFP