Since the legislation in 1993, permitting sub-national borrowing, there has been a virtual explosion of sub-national debt – narrow measures in official statistics put overall sub-national debt at around 2 percent of GDP in 1999, but when a number of missing components, including arrears are taken into consideration, the figure rises to 8 percent. The arrears on loan guarantees reportedly increased from 35 percent in 1999 to 40 percent in 2000.