PENSION SYSTEM IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA -- BASIC INDICATORS.

Pension reform in Croatia, which has started in 1999, established the three-pillar pension system and introduced important changes in its first pillar -- the public pension insurance based on the intergenerational solidarity (PAYG). The paper analyses the trends in the pension system from 1999 until 2004 from the aspect of PAYG system, based on concrete basic indicators such as the dependency ratio, collection of contributions, the average pension, replacement rates and public pension expenditures as a percentage of the GDP. Based on the analysed indicators, the author concludes that the exceptionally unfavourable trends that threatened to destroy the pension system in Croatia towards the end of 1990s have been stopped. However, a significant improvement is possible only in the case of the economic and social expansion of the Republic of Croatia as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]