The number of new restrictions on international trade has slowed sharply, according to an official study commissioned by the G20 group of governments, suggesting that a feared surge of protectionism has not arrived.

The report, by the World Trade Organisation and two other official agencies, said that new import-restricting measures imposed over the past six months by G20 countries had affected at most 0.7 per cent of G20 goods imports, or 0.4 per cent of world imports – about half the increase in the previous six months.

There had been no new restrictions on services trade, though financial bail-outs continued to have a distorting effect and most new investment-related actions had encouraged rather than deterred foreign investors, the report found.