By Andy Bruce
The euro zone is unlikely to survive its sovereign debt crisis in current form, according to a majority of leading economists and former policymakers polled by Reuters.
Fourteen out of 20 prominent academics, former policymakers and independent thinkers polled over the last 10 days agreed the euro zone’s make-up would change.
A new “core” euro zone with fewer members received qualified backing from 10 economists as a possible solution, with seven of them saying Greece should be excluded from it.
Six expected the currency bloc to survive as it is although Europe’s leaders have yet to settle on measures needed to solve the debt crisis, which is choking funding for Italy and Spain, the third and fourth largest euro zone economies which Europe can ill afford to bail out.
