GlobalSource Partners' Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) Analyst Ivan Tchakarov is one of the world’s leading economists on the region. In a career spanning the financial services industry and multilateral organizations, he has delved into every aspect of the region's domestic and external economy, and is recognized globally for his depth of knowledge and understanding of the region’s macroeconomic development.

Dr. Tchakarov served most recently as Chief Economist for the Caucasus and CIS regions at Citi. Previously, he was Chief Economist for the Region at Bank of America, Renaissance Capital and Nomura. In those roles, he was consistently top ranked by institutional clients in global fixed income research surveys, and for the accuracy of his forecasts by Consensus Economics and FocusEconomics.

He began his career at the IMF, where he was an author of the IMF Global Economy Model used for policy simulations in the IMF’s WEO publications. He has written extensively on open-economy macroeconomics, focusing on the impact of exchange rate volatility and foreign-currency denominated debt on economic activity and welfare in global emerging markets. His more recent research concentrates on the Caucasus and Central Asia’s economic and geopolitical development, and the increasing importance of the region in the post-Russia-Ukraine conflict environment.

Dr. Tchakarov holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Davis, an M.A. in Transition Economics from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and a B.A. in International Business from the University for National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is frequently sought after as an authority on the region and has appeared on media networks including CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg and Reuters TV.