progress periods followed by dramatic moments. the common denominator of all these was the fact that the national bank of romania has always provided support to the country in order to overcome the trying times. the institution we are celebrating today bore the brunt during world war one, having to cover all the related expenses. in the inter - war years, the nbr played a paramount role in romania ’ s economic reconstruction. as for the present, it is difficult to provide a self - description. government authorities and public opinion might be in a better position to do that. within the space of only two decades, the romanian society underwent major changes. the future generations will judge what we did well and what we did wrong. during all these years, however, particularly since the start of reintegration and reconnection with the european union, i can assure you that the national bank of romania made good use of its institutional expertise and took full advantage of the experience acquired ever since its establishment. i would like to mention that the nbr would not have managed to successfully accomplish its most complex tasks without the substantial contribution of its employees, namely the human resources it has created itself : employees, experts, managers. this is the reason why i want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to both present and former members of this high performance team for its professional qualities and integrity, as well as for their contribution to developing and enhancing the prestige of this institution, to the benefit of romania. on this anniversary occasion, it is my duty to mention that the far - reaching and beneficial reform our institution has undergone for the past two decades, the reconnection with the european system of central banks, would not have been possible without the various types of support from other central banks and international financial institutions. during its transformation and consolidation process, the national bank of romania became a top ranking institution, capable of meeting the european standards and providing assistance to other central banks. looking further ahead and taking into account the activity it has performed for the past 130 years, i would like to emphasise that the national bank of romania stands firmly committed to fulfilling its mandate as a guardian of price and financial stability in romania. our efforts will focus on committing ourselves, together with the government of romania, to pursuing sound and stability - oriented policies, so that we can overcome the current challenges. attracting european funds plays a major part in the sustainable development of romania, as saving will remain insufficient in our country for a rather long time. the national bank of romania

, the citizens grow increasingly dissatisfied with policy - making and become detached from their leaders ’ actions. the gap is then filled by extremism and populism, two evolving diseases of societies today. moreover, despite an immense stock of knowledge that is accessible to an unprecedented number of people, we notice a lack of appetite for this knowledge, most surprisingly among younger generations. therefore, it appears that our real problem is not the lack of knowledge, but the lack of interest for knowledge. 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches i have to tell you that the national bank of romania has established 9 years ago its activity of financial education and last year we created a specialized department for this purpose. this conference is organized under the umbrella of our broader project academica, meant to stimulate the contacts between the academic world, our central bank experts and the public. with this triangle of knowledge, we hope to become more and more successful in reaching the hearts and minds of citizens, but also of policymakers and company managers. we have a long way to go in both directions. we still see large groups of population that have insufficient or zero knowledge about the economy and the risks to their economic life. the last survey on financial literacy in romania revealed that only 22 % of the adult population could be considered financially literate. this means that the rest of respondents have problems in understanding the perils of inflation or the risks associated with a bank credit. therefore, it goes without saying that in order to have successful policies, we have not only to integrate more knowledge in our policy design, but also to convince people to integrate more knowledge in their financial decisions. and this is twice as hard to achieve. these facts oblige us to realize that challenging the status quo means in the end challenging mentalities, both those of policymakers and of citizens. it is a very complex process, but we see it as an opportunity as well. we can transform education and awareness in very effective policy tools, to everybody ’ s benefit. we can surpass the objective limits of our policy actions, by making people more aware of these very objective limits. bridging the knowledge gap can lead to more financial inclusion, to more access to finance, which is good news for banks, companies, citizens and public authorities alike. ladies and gentlemen, my conclusion and my message for you, distinguished participants to this conference, and i do not want to sound old fashioned, is that we need research and economic analysis that is practical and can fill