Finance Minister Bill English says international policymakers now realise there are no more clever solutions to help get large economies out of double-dip recession, and it's time to stick to the basics.
Mr English is attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington.
He says economies have slowed down but a lot of the pessimism from organisations such as the International Monetary Fund is as much because large countries, including the United States, now know there are no more clever solutions and they have to borrow less, spend carefully and pay off debt.
"In New Zealand we've been focussing on that now for the last two or three years. For a lot of other countries, they're going to have to go back to basics."
Mr English says there is little confidence in the effectiveness of measures announced on Wednesday by the US Federal Reserve to tackle weakness in the American economy.
"The general opinion is that it won't make much difference and actually it's time for the US Congress to sort out their tax system, start cutting their spending and get on top of their debt."
New Zealand is in a comparatively good situation having been cutting debt for some time, and it is important that international lenders understand that and continue to lend money, he says.
NZ dollar fall 'good news'
Mr English says the fall in the New Zealand dollar was expected as commodity prices are dropping slightly.
The dollar slid to a low of US77.5 cents on Friday morning before recovering slightly to US78 cents in the evening.
"For us it's good news that that exchange rate is coming back, provided it doesn't drop precipitously.
"Having it come back into the 70s will give our exporters who are under pressure some relief and the prospect that we could look forward to more growth in the future from exports."
