While the vulnerabilities of Europe's peripheral economies have been exposed by the sovereign debt crisis, the idea that Germany's economy remains robust has gone largely unquestioned.

But Charles Dumas, chairman and chief economist at Lombard Street Research in London, says the idea of German economic strength is a "fallacy", and argues that it is essential the country leaves the single currency if it is to rectify its fiscal imbalances.

How has the German economy performed over the past decade