Abstract
This work focuses on the relationship between budgetary institutions, sovereign rating and central government debt. Based on the 2007 OECD/World Bank Budgeting Database (OWD), we assess the transparency of national budget reports. This is a new development of Bastida and Benito (2007) transparency measurement (which referred to 2003 OWD). Once we build this new 2007 measurement of fiscal transparency, we analyze some public debt issues! Firstly we evaluate how governments have managed to increase/decrease their fiscal transparency in the period 2003-2007. Secondly, we provide further insights on the relationship transparency-public debt. Thirdly, we assess to what extent public debt analysts (for example Moody's and S&P) internalize on the characteristics of budget institutions, i.e., transparency.