US Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew fears that a miscalculation over Greece may result in a new crisis and feels that it would be a mistake to think such a development would not affect the wider world.

According to the American official “if the Greeks are prepared to take the kinds of tough steps that they need to take, they find a pathway to resolving this without there being an unnecessary crisis”.

The challenge for the Europeans, the political and economic institutions – the IMF – is to show enough flexibility”, he added.

Mr. Lew made the comments at the London School of Economics, two days ahead of the central banker meeting scheduled at the G7 summit in Dresden.