New Zealand's currency woes are shared by many other economies in the AsiaPacific region and will be likely be major area of discussion at this weeks' Apec summit in Japan, says Prime Minister John Key.

Prime Minister John Key says NZ and its central bank are effectively powerless when it comes to checking the strength of the kiwi dollar.

The New Zealand dollar will try to break above 80 US cents this week after the Federal Reserve said it will start printing US$600 billion.