The 2008 Nobel economics prize winner Paul Krugman on Monday said that global economy would continue its downtrend for at least till 2011 or even beyond.

Krugman, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University in the United States, was giving a lecture at Stockholm University.

"We could easily be talking about a world economy that is depressed into 2011 and even beyond," Krugman said.

"The scenario I fear is that we'll see for the whole world the equivalent of Japan's lost decade in the 1990s, that we'll see a world of zero interest rates and inflation and no sign of recovery and it will just go on for a very, very extended period," he added.

"And that's unfortunately very easy to see happen."

"On top of that, we'll have a series of extremely severe crises in particular countries in trouble," he predicted.