Mr English met Bill Daley, the chief of staff to President Barack Obama, and Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve and over the next two days will meet Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan and Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren.
Mr English said after his meetings that there were "increasing levels of frustration here including at the Federal Reserve that they haven't been able to crank the economy up even though they have got record low interest rates, they have been printing money flat out and the Government has been spending a lot."
"They are starting to realise they can't just pull a rabbit out of a hat and get the economy going again, that they actually have to rebuild confidence with stable Government making sound decisions and a longer term view."
Mr English said the euro crisis was of greatest concern.
"What has surprised me here is how concerned everybody is about the European situation."
There seemed to be broad agreement about what should happen technically but everyone was pessimistic that the politicians could organise themselves to do it.
They did not have faith that 17 countries in the Eurozone would be able to agree.
"I've met one or two people who think they'll muddle through. But I've met a lot more people who are concerned that something bad might happen."
Commenting on New Zealand's low gdp growth figure out this week - 0.1 per cent for the June quarter following a revised 0.9 per cent for the March quarter - Mr English said he was not worried about the quarter to quarter numbers because they fluctuated.
Yesterday's figure was worse than expected.
"This is the nature of the recovery. It's a bit patchy."
"The problem with all this news is that is undermines people's confidence and makes them just a bit less willing to do the things that make an economy grow."
There was a mild version of it in New Zealand"and they've got an intense version of it here."
"People are scared to do anything. There is plenty of money in the US but it is just sitting in the bank and it is not being invested in new jobs. And Mr Bernanke and Mr Obama are finding that very frustrating."
Mr English said there had been some interest in New Zealand because it had followed a course that was being advocated by the IMF: borrow less, spend carefully, pay off debt and make the economy more competitive.
"The Government can spend a bit more when it needs to so long as it has got a clear path back to surplus where it winds that spending in.
"The IMF is now telling countries that that is what they should do. In the last year or two that's what we have done - we've spent more and that has been added to by the earthquake - at the same time as setting a path back to surplus which gives a bit of credibility."
Labour economic development spokesman David Parker said that while he agreed that Governments had to borrow less, spend carefully and pay off debt, Mr English's solution of only "sticking to the basics' showed National was devoid of inspiration.
"There are a number of things National could be doing, and which Labour will do."
National could change the tax system to drive investment capital into the productive export sector, change monetary policy to help the export sector, and develop a savings policy.
"Instead, it has undermined savings with its changes to KiwiSaver.National today highlighted that it has no plan, that it is barren in terms of ideas."
Earlier yesterday Mr English welcomed the fall in the Kiwi dollar overnight Thursday by over five per cent to 78c saying it would be a welcome relief to exporters.
