How a euro break-up could affect your holiday money

Talk is increasingly turning away from saving the euro to how to break it up in an orderly manner. Matthew Partridge examines what this would mean for anyone holding euro notes.

For a few months there, Europe fell out of the headlines, as a small dose of money printing by the European Central Bank allayed fears that we were on the verge of a repeat of 2008.

But as Spain's current woes demonstrate, you'd have been wrong to think that the euro crisis was over. The Spanish economy seems to be in freefall, with nearly a quarter of people out of work. The failure of the latest Spanish bond auction suggests that it will need more support from the rest of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri