Chances of euro zone break up tumble since mid-2102 -survey

The prospects of a country being forced to leave the euro zone have all but vanished since the middle of last year, a survey released on Monday showed.

The poll of 956 investors by research group Sentix showed just 17.2 percent expected one or more states to leave the 17-state bloc over the next 12 months.

This was down from 25 percent in December, and a high of 73 percent in July 2012, a month after the index began.

"A euro breakup is almost no issue anymore," Sentix said in a statement.

Since the start of the index, the European Central Bank has unveiled a plan to buy the bonds of stricken euro members, and Greece successfully completed a debt buyback, easing financial market tension and prompting policymakers to say the worst was over.

Greece remained the country deemed most likely to exit the euro zone in the survey but the percentage of those who expect a "Grexit" within the next year fell to 13.9 percent from 22.5 percent in December.

For Cyprus, which applied for a bailout in June last year, the percentage fell by two percentage points to 7.5 percent.

(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)