Financial Literacy of Latvian Citizens: Findings and Conclusions

Guna Ciemleja

The global financial crisis and financial stability issues of the Eurozone countries have demonstrated that the total of financial knowledge and skills of the population that lets people make informed and efficient decisions is of utmost importance. Considering high social importance of financial education, it is necessary to develop a knowledge platform to increase the level of financial literacy. The results obtained in the process of assessment of the level of individual’s financial literacy provide information on the factors, which reduce financial efficiency and cause unnecessary costs. Despite a vast body of international experience in the field of financial literacy assessment, one of the main problems is to develop a measuring instrument, which can ensure valid results and can be adapted to the socio-economic and demographic conditions of a definite country. Therefore, in 2015, academic personnel of the Department of Finance, Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management of Riga Technical University conducted research within the project «Enhancing Latvian Citizens’ Securitability through Development of the Financial Literacy» and developed an instrument for assessment of the level of financial literacy, which can be used to evaluate financial knowledge of the Latvian citizens taking into consideration all components of financial literacy. The results are briefly described in the current paper.

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