Top Ten PFM Blog Posts of 2017

Posted by Richard Allen, Teresa Curristine, and Daniel Shrift[1]

2017 was another bumper year for the PFM blog, with nearly 70 articles being published. The blog also celebrated its 10^th anniversary! Readership levels maintained their high level of the previous year, as did the rich diversity of our articles, authors and readers. Nearly half of these articles, and a similar proportion of the Top Ten, were written by external contributors from a wide range of organizations in the public sector, academia, and the private sector. Topics ranged widely, from fiscal rules and fiscal councils, to stress-testing the public finances, to the sequencing of PFM reform, to medium-term budget frameworks, to digitization and fiscal policy. Some of these topics are old perennials, others were breaking new ground and stretching the envelope of knowledge.

The editors have tried to keep the blog alive, contemporary, relevant to policymakers and PFM advisors, and open to new ideas and initiatives. We hope that we have been modestly successful in this endeavor, and would welcome feedback from our readers on how to improve the blog still further during 2018.  

In the spirit of celebrating another great year, the time has come to announce the Top Ten most popular blog posts of 2017. The first placed post, with more than 1,300 hits, goes to an unauthored piece announcing the launch of the IMF’s highly successful online PFM course, which was supported by USAID. Of the authored pieces, first place goes to Duncan Cleary for his article on Big Data Analytics for Better Revenue Administration, one of a series of IMF publications during the year on issues related to the fiscal aspects of digitization. Honorable mention as runners-up goes to Ashni Singh for his piece on the coordination of planning and budgeting functions, and to Ivor Beazley and Don Moynihan for their article on new developments in performance-based budgeting. Congratulations to Duncan, Ashni, Ivor, and Don!  

	Title	Authors
1	Big Data Analytics for Better Revenue Administration	Duncan Cleary
2	Coordination of Planning and Budgeting Functions of Government	Ashni Singh
3	Toward Next-Generation Performance Budgeting	Ivor Beazley and Don Moynihan
4	How to Assess FMIS Performance	Gerardo Uña
5	Why Medium-Term Budget Frameworks Under-Perform in Africa	Taz Chaponda and Richard Allen
6	Reforming PFM Institutions through PDIA	Richard Allen
7	Sequencing of Performance-Based Budget Reforms	Maarten de Jong and Alfred Ho
8	Fiscal Rules and Fiscal Councils: New Data Just Out	Victor Lledó
9	How to Link SDGs to the Budget	Suren Poghasyan
10	Stressing the Public Finances – the UK Raises the Bar	Vitor Gaspar and  Jason Harris

Thanks to all our blog authors for your great articles and to our readers for your continuing interest in PFM! May the contributions continue to flow during 2018!

[1] Richard Allen and Teresa Curristine are the Joint Editors of the PFM Blog; Daniel Shrift is a Division Coordinator in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department.

Note: The posts on the IMF PFM Blog should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy.