and the money we can spend, so as to make sure that we make appropriate choices on daily consumption, financial transactions, and lifetime planning. we need to be aware of significant financial literacy factors – namely, the scarcity of money and resources as well as lifetime planning. creating such awareness through financial education is challenging, but we cannot avoid this task. another issue that warrants attention is the rapid increase in financial fraud targeted at elderly people. i feel very sorry for the victims of such crimes. at the same time, the increase in financial fraud suggests that we need to strengthen the financial literacy of elderly people. the victims of financial fraud might have been caught off - guard. if they had had a little more financial literacy, they might not have been deceived. on the basis of our survey, we deem that elderly people generally have more confidence in their own financial literacy compared to other age groups. but in fact, they tend to have insufficient literacy. we should close the gap between high confidence and low literacy. we need to check and control daily payments, manage portfolios in line with lifetime plans, and always confirm the points to check when concluding a contract. enhancing financial literacy in this way will be effective in guarding against financial fraud and, at the same time, for developing efficient asset formation. iii. initiatives taken in japan in 2013, japan ’ s financial services agency compiled a report that showed the future direction of financial education, drawing on the experience of the global financial crisis. it proposed to emphasize literacy for financial behavior and focus on the basics of financial the financial assets here are financial instruments, including bank deposits and postal savings, that are held for investment or reserved for future use. funds held for business purposes and daily use are excluded. bis central bankers ’ speeches literacy to make it easier to learn. based on this report, our council has been working to set standards and specify the contents of financial education by age group, and has formulated the financial literacy map. 2 the council also provides easy - to - understand teaching materials, pamphlets, and dvds in cooperation with financial industry groups and other relevant organizations. in particular, we have pamphlets for middle - aged and elderly people, who must consider how to maintain their living standard over their retirement period as an immediate, practical issue. in cooperation with relevant organizations, the council also gives lectures to university students that place emphasis on fostering decision - making ability. through these activities, it has been promoting more effective financial education for working - age generations

areas such as industry characteristics, investment in r & d and innovation. differences in the timing and extent of past structural reforms in euro area countries are also a source of diversity. to give you an example, the netherlands undertook labour market reforms much earlier than the largest euro area countries. this enhanced its flexibility and increased its ability to adjust to a wide range of shocks. in some other countries, short - term shocks may have had more persistent effects on growth differentials owing to slow adjustment processes caused by the presence of structural rigidities. differences in fiscal policies and other national policies can also give rise to diverse economic situations. there is an additional source of diversity that may be working its way through the system. after the launch of the euro, some countries suddenly benefited from lower short and long - term interest rates, as well as easier access to more competitive credit markets. this encouraged the purchase of durable and non - durable goods, as well as housing, albeit to differing extents in the various euro area countries. this was equivalent to a one - off shock immediately after the launch of the euro. all in all, the degree of diversity observed in the euro area is not substantially different from that seen in the united states. and neither is it substantially different from that seen within the national borders of several large economies ( such as germany, italy and spain ), which is a continuation of historical patterns. diversity in perspective diversity within the euro area should be put in perspective, and i shall now look at three main types of divergence. whenever possible, i will compare the euro area with the united states, as the world ’ s only other industrialised economy of a comparable size. a ) inflation dispersion in the euro area declined considerably in the 1980s and 1990s and is now on a par with that of the united states. impressive progress has been made, and inflation dispersion among euro area countries has broadly stabilised at a low level since the launch of the euro. to give you an example, the unweighted standard deviation of annual hicp inflation rates still stood at around 6 percentage points in late 1990, but this rate has broadly stabilised at around 1 percentage point since the launch of the euro. this dispersion level is similar to that of the 14 us metropolitan statistical areas ( msas ), but is somewhat higher than that of the four us census regions. although such comparisons are subject to some well - known caveats, i would argue that inflation dispersion in the euro