The volume of IT services exports from Ukraine in the first quarter of 2023 decreased by 16 percent year-on-year to $1.68 billion, the IT Ukraine Association said in a press release on Friday.
It pointed out that for January-December 2022, IT services exports increased by $400 million compared to 2021, to $7.35 billion.
“This decline (in Q1-2023) is due to two factors: first – in previous years, the industry grew at an ultra-high rate, and second – each first quarter of a new year traditionally has a decline compared to the first quarter of the previous year. However, the results of the quarterly exports of IT-services from Ukraine in 2022-2023 show that now the industry has entered into a “flat”, that is, growth has stopped and a significant decline has not begun, “- a comment from the executive director of the Association IT Ukraine Konstantin Vasyuk said in a press release.
According to the Association, in the fourth quarter of 2021, exports of IT services from Ukraine amounted to $ 2.11 billion, in the first quarter of 2022 – $ 2 billion, in the second quarter – $ 1.74 billion, in the third quarter – $ 1.74 billion, in the fourth quarter – $ 1.87 billion. At the same time, the first quarter 2023 export figure is higher than any first quarter figure since 2014, when it was only $0.34 billion. Even in Q1 2021, the figure was lower than the current $1.44 billion. It was only surpassed in Q1 2022 at $2 billion.
It is reported that according to the Association’s observations, which are based on data from the National Bank (NBU), a similar situation took place in 2014, when the IT-sector also showed a drop of 26% and held positions $350-400 million quarterly. However, in 2016, the IT-sector resumed growth and until 2022 was adding 20% annually.
With reference to the NBU data, the IT Ukraine Association reports that IT services account for 43% of total services exports from Ukraine in the first quarter of 2023.
