By Graham Allchurch

The UK economy has already been affected by the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis, prime minister David Cameron has stated.

Numerous countries that use the euro – including Greece, Portugal, Spain and now Italy – have been found to have huge debts and consequently borrowing costs. Attempts to rectify these issues have resulted in multi-billion euro bailouts from other nations in the Eurozone and severe austerity measures imposed by those nations' governments.

In an interview with BBC Radio 2, Mr Cameron explained that there is now a "big question mark over the future of the Eurozone".

He added that although the UK is not using the currency, the turmoil in Europe has already had an impact on Britain, saying: "In the last quarter of the economy we did grow, we grew by 0.5 per cent – others are forecasting growth – but [the crisis] is clearly slowing growth and it's a difficult time for the economy."

The prime minister went on to note that it would be "calamitous" if UK interest rates hit the heights of those now seen in Italy – the yields on Italian ten-year government bonds have risen to 6.77 per cent.