Ігор Вишневський Around IT 17 June 2026, 14:29

"IT is not the main engine. It is more like a liver." Experts assessed the current role of the IT sector in the formation of GDP

Experts analyzed the role the IT industry plays in shaping GDP.

According to DOU, IT is included in the list of seven priority sectors in the government’s new strategy «Economy of the Future», but experts point out that one should not have inflated expectations regarding the IT sector.

According to Forward Deployed Engineer Andriy Rogovsky, the thesis that IT is capable of providing 10% of Ukrainian GDP is not confirmed by the figures, because the industry’s share in GDP, on the contrary, decreased from 4,43% in 2023 to 3,92% in 2024.

At the same time, according to the results of 2025, it provided only 3,2% of GDP. Even under a favorable scenario, according to the expert, the share of the IT sector can only return to the level of about 4–4.2%.

«IT is not the main engine of GDP. It is more like the liver that filters hard currency into the country while the rest of the organs are at war,» Rogovsky notes.

He believes that the importance of IT for the Ukrainian economy goes far beyond its share in GDP, as the industry remains one of the country’s largest exporters, accounting for about 42% of services exports and over 12% of total exports of goods and services.

According to Bohdan Slutsky, senior economist at the Center for Economic Strategy, the IT sector’s share in the economy and employment is too small to independently influence the aggregate indicator. In addition, IT competes with other industries for the currently scarce labor force.

«Its realistic role is to increase the productivity of other sectors, in particular agro, defense, state-tech and fintech, as well as to generate foreign exchange exports and attract foreign investment,» concludes Bohdan Slutsky.

According to Yaryna Voznyak, head of the research department of the Lviv IT Cluster, IT can play a more important role than simply increasing the export of computer services, because the technology sector is one of the few industries capable of influencing the government’s strategic goals.

«IT’s most organic place is as a source of technological solutions for other sectors of the economy, as an infrastructure for increasing the productivity of the entire economy, and as an environment for the development of AI, deep-tech, and dual-use technologies,» says Wozniak.

This is confirmed by Dmytro Krukovets, head of the macroeconomic analysis department at KSE Institute.

«Digitalization of business processes, GovTech, defense tech, the use of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and automation increase efficiency in other industries — from the agricultural sector to public administration. That is, the contribution of IT should be considered not only as a line of „export of services“, but also as a multiplier that strengthens the rest of the sectors,» explains Krukovets.

Let us recall that the main risks that the Ukrainian IT industry sees before were previously announced .

Ukrainian IT exports in March grew by almost 9% and approached $600 million. Who are the main clients?

Ukrainian IT sector provided 32% of GDP and paid over UAH 50 billion in taxes in 2025