Paris, February 12 (Eficom).- Spain, Japan and the United Kingdom in 2023 were the countries with the least restrictions on exchange in services, according to the OECD, and Spain stood out above all for being the country that created the fewest obstacles in the banking sector.
In its annual report on obstacles and liberalization measures in services, released on Monday, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) explained that the banking sector is the most open sector in Spain compared to the average banking sector of the 50 countries included in the study.
The banking restrictions index in Spain was 0.05 on a scale of 0 to 1, well below the average of 0.23.
Only one other country, the Czech Republic, had a figure below 0.1 points. The United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia and Ireland are next among the countries with the lowest barriers to banking exchanges.
In contrast, the largest restrictions among the sample countries (accounting for more than 80% of global trade in services) in banking occurred in Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, India, and Vietnam, all with values greater than 0. .40.
In global terms, the OECD found that last year there were fewer measures to liberalize trade in services than in 2022, but in any case they carried more weight than new restrictions on trade.
Barriers have been removed, especially in infrastructure-related services, such as construction, architecture and engineering services.
The other side of the coin was the obstacles to the divestment of foreign direct investments in sectors such as information technology, telecommunications, transportation, or banking.
The sectors with the highest restrictiveness indices on average across the 50 sampled countries were air transport (0.406 on a scale of 0 to 1), legal services (0.346), accounting (0.313), rail transport goods (0.299), and television broadcasting. . (0.296), mail (0.263), and sea transportation (0.259).
In Spain, the greatest obstacles to exchanges occurred in air transport (0.35), legal services (0.24), road freight transport (0.16), rail freight transport (0.15) and television broadcasting (0.15). Aficom
ac/lmpg/jla
“Subtly charming bacon junkie. Infuriatingly humble beer trailblazer. Introvert. Evil reader. Hipster-friendly creator.”