ECB chief Mario Draghi plays down eurozone warning

Mr Draghi replaced Jean-Claude Trichet at the ECB on 1 November 2011

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• European anger at UK
• How will the euro crisis end?
• Crisis jargon buster
• Germany's vision for Europe

The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, has said he has "no doubts" about the euro's ability to survive the current crisis.

Speaking to the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, he was asked about a Financial Times interview in which he warned of the costs of a eurozone break-up.
But he said he believed in the currency's "permanence".
He also warned that 2012 would be a difficult year for banks.
Mr Draghi had told the FT that countries that left the eurozone would create "a big inflation" and would find themselves in "a much weaker position".
The newspaper compared his comments with the rhetoric of his predecessor, Jean-Claude Trichet, who had dismissed a break-up of the eurozone as "absurd".
Mr Draghi told the committee: "I have no doubts whatsoever about the strength of the euro, about its permanence, about its irreversibility.
"But you have a lot of people, especially outside the euro area, who spend a lot of time in what I call morbid speculation, asking 'what if, what if'."