The release of general government debt data starting from 31 October 2018 brings two novelties in terms of extending the series back to earlier dates and further harmonising the sector classification of units with the ESA 2010 methodology by general government subsector:
- the debt historical series from December 1995 to November 1999 has been reconstructed;
- the series of central government and social security funds debt in the period from December 1999 to November 2010 has been fully harmonised with the ESA 2010 methodology in terms of the sector classification of units by general government subsector.
Available sources of the Ministry of Finance and the Croatian National Bank were used to compile the debt historical series, with the debt compilation and the sector classification of units being fully harmonised with the ESA 2010 methodology and the Eurostat Manual on Government Deficit and Debt.
The debt of a number of units from the social security funds subsector has been reclassified to the central government subsector for the period from December 1999 to November 2010. This involves units that were prior to this release part of the social security funds subsector and that belong to the central government sector under the ESA 2010 methodology. This reclassification reduced social security funds debt and increased central government debt by almost the same amount, whereas the stock of consolidated general government debt remained unchanged in the period concerned.