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Luca Léry Moffat

Economics reporter

Luca is the economics reporter for the Kyiv Independent. He was previously a research analyst at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economics think tank, where he worked on Russia and Ukraine, trade, industrial policy, and environmental policy. Luca also worked as a data analyst at Work-in-Data, a Geneva-based research center focused on global inequality, and as a research assistant at the Economic Policy Research Center in Kampala, Uganda. He holds a BA honors degree in economics and Russian from McGill University. Luca is originally from the UK.

l.moffat@kyivindependent.com
For media & speaking inquiries:
press@kyivindependent.com

Articles

Business

How leaked conversations suggest backroom influence at a Ukrainian bank

by Luca Léry Moffat
A state-owned bank that formerly belonged to a Russian oligarch is at the center of a spiraling corruption scandal implicating several people close to President Volodymyr Zelensky. In transcripts of recorded conversations published by Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda in the first weeks of May, two businessmen with ties to close friends of Zelensky discuss potential candidates for the board of Sense Bank — appearing to exert influence over a process that should be free of outside interfer
Business

Exclusive: Ukraine’s Finance Ministry quietly working to convince MPs to vote for unpopular tax change

by Luca Léry Moffat
Ukraine's Finance Ministry is hoping to convince Ukrainian lawmakers to vote for unpopular tax changes — needed to keep receiving cash for foreign donors — with improvements to electronic tax filing systems. Kyiv has agreed to a long list of reforms as part of large financing packages from international partners, including the International Monetary Fund, the EU, and the World Bank. Ukraine relies on the cash to support its military and state services functioning. One of the most scrutinized r
Business

Climate policy becomes new front in Ukraine-EU economic tensions

by Dominic Culverwell, Kateryna Denisova, Luca Léry Moffat
The latest source of friction between Ukraine and the EU is climate rules and unhappy steel producers, as the country’s membership goals collide with its wartime realities. Ukrainian officials are in Brussels this week to discuss the EU's carbon border policy that Kyiv argues is hitting its war-battered steel industry and economy. At the center of those discussions is the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism — known as CBAM — which is designed to prevent "carbon leakage" — or pushing pollut
Business

Ukraine wins debt relief and IMF flexibility in DC — but growth outlook dims

by Luca Léry Moffat
WASHINGTON — Ukraine secured two wins in Washington, D.C. this week, including an extension of a debt repayment freeze, as well as signals that the International Monetary Fund would be open to easing some of the tougher elements of the fund's $8.1 loan program to Kyiv. Kyiv signed a deal with international partners to suspend debt service due by Ukraine until the end of February 2030, extending a previous arrangement reached in 2023, the finance ministry said on April 17. The fund also signale
Business

Ukraine raises $500 million extra in revenue amid efforts to reassure partners

by Luca Léry Moffat
WASHINGTON — Ukraine collected $500 million more revenue than expected in the first three months of this year, the country’s Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said, as Ukraine tries to better line its war coffers and reassure key partners. "Revenue mobilization is strong," Marchenko said at the U.S.-Ukraine Partnership Forum hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on April 15 in Washington D.C., where he spoke on a panel on financing Ukraine’s recovery. Big donors to Ukraine, including the Inte
Business

IMF spring meetings: What to watch on Ukraine funding

by Luca Léry Moffat
Economic policymakers from around the world will gather in Washington, D.C. this week to talk about the global economy — one facing wars, rising protectionism, and the risk of the most severe energy crisis in a generation. Finance ministers, central bank governors, and heads of state will attend the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s spring meetings on April 13–18, held each year. Ukraine will send a high-level delegation, including Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, Central Bank Gover

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