David Cameron blames UK double-dip recession on eurozone

Source: The Guardian

David Cameron on Sunday held out the prospect of the UK economy being dragged down for years, as he predicted the euro crisis was "nowhere near half complete" and warned the single currency may yet break up. He also admitted efforts to move the UK economy away from dependence on the City and the public sector were not going fast enough.

Speaking at the start of a week of elections in Europe, including for the French presidency and the Greek parliament, Cameron's suggestion that governance of the euro is not yet resolved will anger the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, as she seeks to steady increasingly nervous markets.

Cameron's dire warning about the euro in part reflects a desire to explain that the continued problems in Britain's main export markets had led the UK last week to slip back into recession. Asked if the world was halfway through the crisis in the eurozone, he told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: "I don't think we're anywhere near halfway through it."

Many commentators would argue the eurozone crisis started in late 2009, implying that Cameron believes it will stretch on for many years. Describing "massive tensions" inside the eurozone, he said: "I think it's going to be a very long and painful process in the eurozone as they work out do they want a single currency with a single economic policy and all the things that go with it, or are they going to have something quite different? That, they have to decide about."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/29/cameron-double-dip-eurozone