There are many regulations that increase trade costs in the economy and undermine competitiveness. Estimates from the OECD for digital services in 2022 suggest that the average level of restriction in South Africa is more than 2 and a half times higher than the median in the OECD according. The chart also shows that South Africa’s share of digitally-deliverable services in commercial services trade is slightly below the median for OECD economies.
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The OECD Digital Services Trade Restrictiveness Index measures cross-cutting barriers that inhibit or completely prohibit firms’ ability to supply services using electronic networks. The Digital Services Trade Restrictiveness Index includes five measures: 1) infrastructure and connectivity, 2) electronic transactions, 3) e-payment systems, 4) intellectual property rights and 5) other barriers to trade in digitally enabled services. The DSTRI is a composite index that takes values between 0 and 1, where 0 indicates an open regulatory environment for digitally enabled trade and 1 indicates a completely closed regime.
