'Unsustainable' euro 3-5 years from its demise, expert says

The chairman of the Burnbrae Group told CNBC on Friday the end of the euro is looming after the British vote to leave the European Union.

The currency hit a low of $1.0909 against the dollar after the vote, ending the session near $1.11. While many analysts have bet on a break up of the single currency in the past, the U.K.'s decision to exit the EU has raised the stakes, and led to speculation that dissatisfaction with European unity could lead other members to depart.

Burnbrae's Jim Mellon, who had supported the leave campaign, told CNBC's " Worldwide Exchange " the euro is "unsustainable." He said that within the euro zone, Germany's currency is "significantly undervalued, but France's is overvalued."

"I think the euro is gone within three to five years, as it currently exists," Mellon said.

David Bloom, global head of FX strategy at HSBC, told "Worldwide Exchange," he's not so sure the euro is doomed. "The question is one of contagion," he said.

Yet most analysts agreed the single currency's near-term risks were skewed to the downside, particularly with Europe's moribund economy and uncertainty in Britain after the shock vote. That puts the U.K.'s pound in the immediate crosshairs of nervous investors as well.

"This is a sterling problem," not a euro problem, Bloom said. The drop in the pound sterling, according to Bloom, is "not a move, this is an adjustment," something that he believes "has to take place."

"It needs to fall to a level at which the U.K. gets investment back again and I don't think the fall is over," he said.

Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at BNY Mellon, agreed, telling "Worldwide Exchange" that "it'd be foolish not to believe that there's more space to the downside."

Derrick said, however, that the sterling has seen a "pretty positive" rebound since Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, said that the central bank would be providing more liquidity. The BNY strategist concluded it may be better to start looking for what will be the next domino to fall.

Kit Juckes, global head of FX strategy at Societe Generale, said that while the U.K. will likely see a slowdown in growth in the next few years, "this isn't the end of the world." Juckes said the uncertainty will "weigh gradually" on England as it disentangles itself from the EU, but it ultimately won't be crippling.

"Economically, this is not as bad as the post-Lehman environment. This town will do OK," he said.

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