Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

Imagine a country whose inhabitants work fewer hours than almost anyone else, whose workforce is not particularly productive, and whose children spend less time at school than most of its neighbours. Hardly a recipe for economic success, you might think. But the country described above is none other than Germany, Europe's industrial powerhouse and the world's second-largest exporter; a country whose economy has single-handedly stopped the eurozone from falling back into recession and is the only nation rich enough to save the euro.

When you consider that only the Dutch work fewer hours among the 34 members of the OECD, that German children spend 25% less time in the classroom than their Italian counterparts, and that there are six more productive economies in Europe alone, these facts appear all the more remarkable. There is no doubt that Germany has greatly benefited from the euro.

By getting into bed with more sluggish economies in southern Europe, Germany adopted a much weaker currency than would otherwise have been the case; as one of the very few countries in the world running a balance of payments surplus, the Deutschmark would have been a great deal stronger than the euro. This has provided a terrific boost to German exports, which are cheaper for overseas consumers as a result. But this goes only some way toward explaining Germany's current economic might.