No end in sight to market woes say Trichet, Buffett

LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The end to the credit crunch is still not in sight, European Central Bank President, Jean-Claude Trichet and Warren Buffett, the world's most famous stock market investor, warned on Monday.

"These are demanding times, challenging times... It is an ongoing, very significant market correction," Trichet told BBC radio in Britain.

Buffett, whose years of shrewd investing have earnt him a fortune estimated at $62 billion by Forbes magazine and the nickname "the sage of Omaha," struck a similar tone at a news conference in Frankfurt.

"I'll talk about the United States. I don't think the effects of the credit crunch are far from over at all. I think there will be rippling secondary, tertiary effects."

Trichet and Buffett's comments come after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week the healing process from the credit crisis would take some time.

Deutsche Bank's (DBKGn.DE) Chief Executive Josef Ackermann was more upbeat however in an interview over the weekend.

"I think that we are getting closer to the end of the financial crisis," Ackermann told the Swiss Sunday newspaper Sonntagsblick. "It is not fully over yet, but the signs from the United States are encouraging."

With market turbulence persisting, Trichet added governments and financial decision makers needed to keep an iron grip on oil and food price fuelled inflation.

"We have this accumulation of the oil shock, the food and agro-products shock... Price stability and credibility in price stability in the medium term is the best way to have a high level of sustainable (economic) growth and sustainable job creation."