Lúcio Vinhas de Souza has been the sovereign chief economist of Moody's Investor Services since 2011. Before that position, he coordinated the analysis and forecasting for the high income countries as well as the European and Central Asian regions at the World Bank's Development Prospects Group, where he co-authored Global Economic Prospects. Prior to the World Bank, Mr. Vinhas de Souza was the head of the Russia and Belarus desk at the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission in Belgium. Previously, he was a coordinator of research area at the Kiel Institute for World Economics in Germany. Going further back, Mr. Vinhas de Souza's first work experience was as an international economist at the United Nations' Secretariat at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands and a Master's degree in economics from the New University of Lisbon in Portugal.