The President of the European Central Bank is quoted as saying that he still sees Europe's economy in its deepest crisis since World War II or even World War I.

German News weekly Der Spiegel on Saturday reported that Jean-Claude Trichet said that since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 "we have experienced and we are experiencing really dramatic times."

In an interview to be published Monday, Trichet linked the recent exacerbation of the euro zone's debt crisis to the 2008 collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, saying "the markets didn't work anymore."

Trichet was further quoted as saying that there was no doubt the economy "is in its most difficult situation since World War II or perhaps even since World War I."