The Economist explains

How is Ukraine’s software industry weathering the war?

The sector has proved resilient, but the outlook is darkening

Ukrainians sit inside a cafe during an emergency power outages in the city center in Odesa, Ukraine on 18 November 2022. A partial blackout in Odesa and the region, which occurred after a massive missile attack on the Ukrainian energy system on November 15, became a serious test for the inhabitants of Odesa in southern Ukraine. In the Odesa region, 70% of houses remain without electricity, during emergency power blackouts in Odesa, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as local media informed. (Photo by STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

BATTERED BY THE war, Ukraine’s economy will shrink by nearly a third in 2022, according to the country’s central bank. But one sector has fared much better than most. The Ukrainian IT Association, a tech-industry body based in Kyiv, the capital, reckons that in the first six months of this year software exports grew by 23% compared with the same period in 2021. Only 2% of Ukraine’s 5,000 software companies have folded this year. Why has the industry been so resilient, and what’s next for the country’s coders?

This article appeared in the The Economist explains section of the print edition under the headline “How is Ukraine’s software industry weathering the war?”

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