Euro plunges after reports Greece could leave currency By Jill Treanor

 Greece denies claims by Der Spiegel but markets react quickly after report of emergency meeting in Luxembourg.

                                                                                                                             Photograph: Alamy

The euro has had its worst week since January.

 The euro has fallen sharply on the foreign exchange markets in late trading after reports Greece is preparing to leave the eurozone. Athens has denied the reports.

 The Greek deputy finance minister, Filippos Sachinidis, told Reuters: "The report about Greece leaving the eurozone is untrue. Such reports undermine Greece and the euro and serve market speculation games."

 The euro has had its worst week since January, and has fallen 1% to below $1.4400 after a report on the Der Spiegel website that a secret crisis meeting is being held in Luxembourg on Friday evening to discuss the situation of the heavily indebted Greek nation.

 The report said that the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, felt he had no option but to leave the eurozone and that Germany intended to prevent the country tearing up the decade-old single currency.

 Quoting a document which it said was prepared by the German finance ministry, Der Spiegel said that a new Greek currency could lose as much 50% of its value if Greece pulls out of the eurozone, leading to an explosion in Greek national debt and crippling its banking system.

 A German government source told Reuters after the report that: "An exit is not planned and was not planned."

 A spokesman for French finance minister Christine Lagarde refused to comment.

 Greece has been surrounded by rumours for weeks that its considering ways to restructure its debts – which its government has repeatedly denied – and last month its finance ministry launched an investigation into a trader at Citigroup after rumours swirled of an imminent debt restructuring.

 Greece has already agreed a €110bn (£96bn) bailout by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

 The country's debt is expected to hit 160% of GDP in 2012, although the report in Der Spiegel said it would reach 200% if the country exited the single currency.

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