Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the 30th Dubrovnik Economic Conference

Dubrovnik, 14 June 2024

It is a pleasure to be here in Dubrovnik.

To this day, the stunning beauty of this city evokes the words of one of its most famous poets, Ivan Gundulić: “O lijepa, o draga, o slatka slobodo”.^[1]

These words may be centuries old, but they remain as fresh as ever for those who have the good fortune to experience Dubrovnik first-hand.

The programme for the 30th Dubrovnik Economic Conference offers a snapshot of policymaking in a world of transition. And this world of transition is, increasingly, a world of profound uncertainty for economic policymakers.

If you look back at the speeches of former central bankers – as I’m sure many of you enjoy doing – policymakers in every era claim that the world has never been more uncertain.

And indeed the world is not necessarily more tumultuous than in the past, but the nature of the risks we are facing is unusual….