Using available budget data, and in particular CABRI’s COVID-19 Public Finance Response Monitor database, this paper offers an analysis of budget changes recorded in 2020 to better understand the mechanisms, driving forces and impact of the emergency budget revisions that occurred in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We acknowledge that trends in budget reallocation are dependent on a large number of factors, which include the specificities and quality of the PFM system in place, the political context, variations in revenues, and changes in external financing such as donor aid flows or debt relief.