, 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

issues. for example, she has signaled the major risk in not addressing climate change saying with humor : “ our kids will be grilled, fried, toasted and roasted. ” she also militates for encouraging women to seek education and enabling them to be more independent and provide for themselves and for their children. christine lagarde is chevalier de la legion d ’ honneur since july 2000, and commander of the order of merite agricole. she has an honorary doctorate from katholieke universiteit leuven ( belgium ). madame lagarde will address you today on a thought - provoking topic : eastern europe and romania : the path to prosperity. the format will be the following : after her presentation we will allow three questions from the media and three from our guests. madame lagarde, s ’ il vous plait … the floor is yours. bis central bankers ’ speeches