Eurozone crisis seen as `another Lehman'

Sentiment in the eurozone dipped sharply even as the IMF and the EU on Thursday announced a stopgap disbursement package of €12 billion to Greece, delaying the nation's impending default until September.

On Friday, Germany appeared to be more accommodating on the terms of the second Greek bailout.

Chancellor Angela Merkel dropped her previous insistence over sovereign bondholders sharing the burden of any new package, in the form of a maturity extension that would be seen as a default by rating agencies.

However, markets remained downbeat on new fears that Spain too might succumb to debt market panic. Spain was earlier seen to be safely distanced from the crisis that has taken Ireland, Portugal and Greece firmly in its grip.

According to analysts, the circumstances eerily resemble the Lehman Brothers collapse and replay of the events is feared to have disastrous consequences.

Meanwhile, the eurozone too is feared to break up within the next five years, and possibly as soon as 2013, because of weak economic growth in southern Europe, according to the Centre for Economic & Business Research (CEBR).