While lower interbank rates are an important precondition for a recovery in lending markets, they won't automatically lead to a lending revival.

The reserve may be minute, because if one bank is running short of money, others must be running long by roughly the same amount and the first bank can borrow it back on the interbank market.

Many euro-zone corporate and household loans use those interbank rates as a benchmark.

As a result of these developments, interbank interest rates moved on a downtrend, to around 4.5 per cent at end-September.

But there is still scepticism within the industry about the scientific potential of natural products.