Government advisers urge eventual withdrawal from eurozone

Michael Sarris, the Cypriot finance minister, sought to muffle calls for the country to weigh a precedent-setting exit from the euro to ease the economic pain inflicted by its €10bn bailout.

The option of eventually pulling out of the currency was floated by a Nobel prize winner now advising the government, Christopher Pissarides, and Nicholas Papadopoulos, head of the parliament’s finance committee.

“It would be catastrophic to even talk or entertain the idea and much less exit the eurozone,” Sarris said yesterday.