OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index-STRI

February 17, 2023

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently released the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index. India ranked 47^th. Last year, India was in the 46^th position. Unfortunately, India remains among the bottom five countries in the ranking. Russia was in the 48^th position due to its war with Ukraine. STRI speaks about the restrictions on the development of strategic services in the world. This includes freight transport, accounting, legal services, etc.

STRI 2023

This year STRI covered around 50 countries. Japan was ranked topmost. It was followed by UK, Netherlands, Czech, and Chile in second, third, fourth, and fifth places respectively. The countries in the bottommost spots were Indonesia (at the 50^th spot), Thailand (49), Russia (48), and India (47).

The report covers service trade regulations in all of its members. The members of the OECD account to more than 80% of World trade. Very minimal or no trade barriers were seen in Japan, UK and Netherlands. Sound recording and architecture were the most liberal services in 2022.

Why did India jump in the ranking?

India’s position moved on by one spot. This was mainly because of the privatisation of Air India. Also, India eliminated pricing guidelines for share transfer between non-residents and residents. These steps eased the economic stakeholders and pushed India ahead in the ranking.

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