decisions. according to some estimates, by 2025, 463 exabytes of data will be created each day globally. this means huge generation of data that can blur the official statistical information making it difficult for people to read and understand it. obviously, to bring statistics closer to the public we need to place further focus on aspects such as putting numbers in perspective so that they can be easily understood by the wider public, language simplification, that sometimes is not an easy task for experts that are used to statistical taxonomy, segmentation of the audience ( communicate not only to financial analysts and journalist, but to the broader audience, although through different channels ), as well as creation of relatable content that considers what matters to the public and at the same time is educational and entertaining4. along those lines, the national bank, recognizing the importance of communication, engages in quite an array of activities. at the end, i feel that it is appropriate to conclude my address with the motto of the european statistics day 2021 " statistics, a vaccine to protect democracy and combat the virus of disinformation ". 1 " survey of national statistical offices ( nsos ) during covid - 19 ", world bank and the united nations statistical division ( unsd ), brief, july 6 2020. 2 biancotti c., borin a., cingano f., tommasino p., veronese g., " the case for a coordinated covid - 19 response : no country is an island ", 18 march 2020 3 prof. dr frau - meigs d., " societal costs of fake news in the digital single market ", university sorbonne nouvelle, paris, france, european parliament's committee on the internal market and consumer protection, january 2019 4 nunes l. m, colaco a., marques r., oliveira m., " when reaching is no longer enough : 8 tips to engage with central banks'data users ", banco de portugal, isi, 63 world statistics congress, 2021 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches

##minated more effectively, but it has to be accepted, understood and trusted by the general public. good official statistics, as dramatically shown during the covid - 19 crisis, can be crucial to provide a first line of defence against misinformation ( biancotti et al., 2020 ) 2. high quality and reliable statistics is the " weapon " against fake news and divisive messages. more than ever as policy makers we are faced with misinformation, fake news and speculations that can undermine our ability to act effectively. the digital environment, the growing role of social media and absence of clear regulatory framework propelled the dissemination of the so called " mal - information ". for example, we as a central bank, faced ungrounded speculations against the exchange rate on a couple of occasions. keeping us 24 / 7 alerted is the least damage that this type of irresponsible behaviour implies. but the social costs, the damage to the public and the confusion it creates, the harm to the integrity of the institutions and their credibility is enormous. uninformed agent can base their financial decision on unsound grounds, thus incurring personal 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches economic losses. and we as institutions might suffer erosion of our credibility that could hamper us in delivering on our public goods. what can be done to mitigate the impact of misinformation in the modern world? let me refer on this note on the study on " societal costs of fake news in the digital single market " 3 and transpose it to economics. first, it is the self - regulation of the industry – raising awareness of misinformation, costs that it can entail for the society and need of fact - checking. second is the regulation – creating clear and transparent rules of game. third, education - media and information literacy can lead to increased public awareness and capacity to critically asses the news, including fake news. against this background, how can we as producers of statistics contribute in this regard? it appears that adequate communication of our data to the public can help crowd out low quality statistics. we need to consider how to bring closer the statistical products of our work to the public. it is true, that we as central banks have provided to the public a vast portfolio of statistical data, with many dimensions, metadata and public explanations. however, the data, or the explanations may not count if they do not reach the public and do not influence their