Berlin raised the pressure on banks to lend to the country’s industry, with key ministers warning that the government could be forced to find its own “solutions” to a credit crunch.

Peer Steinbrück, Social Democratic finance minister, and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, economics minister of the conservative Christian Social Union, noted at the weekend that banks were receiving liquidity from the European Central Bank at record low interest rates but not passing it on to borrowers.