On Sunday Nikos Voutsis, the interior minister, told the Greek television station Mega that Greece couldn’t meet its pension and wage bills next month and said it would also fail to repay €1.6bn owed to the International Monetary Fund.
He said: "The money won't be given. It isn't there to be given."
David Hollingworth, associate director of communications at London & Country Mortgages, said Britons paid in Sterling with a mortgage denominated in euros will always be affected by fluctuations in the exchange rate and warned things could get increasingly “choppy”.
He said: “The issues in Europe will of course have an impact on that exchange rate. If Sterling strengthens then it could have a favourable impact on the monthly payment but clearly there will be some real questions about how the property market in Greece will fare.
“Liquidity would no doubt tighten considerably and Greek lenders would become very restrictive as a result.
“If they were no longer part of the Eurozone then things could look even worse and who knows what the new currency might look like.”
Jennifer McKeown, economist at Capital Economics, said the European Central Bank had little power to help stabilise the Eurozone or prevent a Grexit.
She said: “After saving the day with its pledge to “do whatever it takes” in 2012, the ECB has arguably now brought on a recovery with its quantitative easing programme. But we expect the policy’s effects to fade rather than grow with time.
“And the Bank is neither willing nor able to prevent singlehandedly a Greek exit from the Eurozone or eradicate the risk of contagion.
“The ECB has not saved the euro-zone and neither is it likely to. The onus still lies on the governments of Greece and the rest of the Eurozone.”
