The consequences of the world financial crisis are already felt in Romania. The number of workplaces created on the basis of direct foreign investment has decreased. Romania is Moldova’s key trade partner and the financial crisis does not usually stop at the border, Ion Serban, economic adviser at the Romanian Embassy in Moldova, told the Chisinau press. According to Serban, the economic growth in Romania this year is much larger than the average growth of 7-9% in the EU. “Unfortunately, the world crisis makes the investors freeze or reduce investments,” Ion Serban said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. The adviser also said that the investment freeze results in fewer workplaces, higher unemployment rate and lower living standards. “Romania was ready to enter the Eurozone the next years and had a strategy designed to maintain the exchange rate within certain fluctuation limits, but now it is hard to achieve this objective. The large banks helped with money by the governments of the U.S. and some of the European countries exert pressure on the smaller countries so as to recoup their losses. Romania, together with Hungary and Poland, intends to approach Brussels for support in halting the pressure exerted on the countries of the region,” Ion Serban said. The economic adviser of the Romanian Embassy in Moldova also said that Romania is glad that Moldova has success in maintaining macroeconomic stability and increasing the GDP. Moldova uses well the autonomous trade preferences and export quotas granted unilaterally by the EU, he added.