Published: October 15, 2019
Moderate growth for Sukuk in 2019
While the Sukuk market has grown this year compared to last year, there are still a number of obstacles keeping growth in check.
This year has been a pretty busy year for the Sukuk market. According to the ratings agency S&P, issuance is up thirty-four percent in the first eight months of the year, compared to the same period last year. This trajectory was particularly pronounced in Indonesia, Turkey and Qatar, although offset by reduced issuance from Bahrain.
“Indonesia started to offer Sukuk as liquidity management instruments,” Mohamed Damak, senior director and global head of Islamic Finance at S&P, tells EMEA Finance. “Turkey, under pressure, opened all available sources of financings. Qatar was back to the market after a one year absence post boycott. Kuwait’s Central Bank issuance and Saudi’s private sector issuers have also supported the growth.”
Bashar Al-Natoor, global head of Islamic Finance at Fitch Ratings, agrees that the market has been gaining momentum. He points out that there are various ways of assessing issuance, but the ten largest markets that include the GCC countries, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey and Pakistan, reveal a lot about the overall trends.