RAM Ratings maintains projected global sukuk issuance at US$75 to US$85 bln for 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: RAM Ratings maintains its projected global sukuk issuance at USD75 billion-USD85 billion, based on the growth trends in sukuk issues from Malaysia, Indonesia, Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE in the first six months of 2018.

“Overall, the sukuk market’s showing in 2018 will depend on the performance of the global economy and the state of investment recovery in key Islamic finance countries,” noted Ruslena Ramli, Head of Islamic Finance at RAM in a note.

Malaysia still leads in terms of the number of sukuk issuance and financing amount. As at end-June 2018, total global sukuk issuance had slipped 5.2 per cent y-o-y to US$50.3 billion.

This was largely due to declines in sukuk issuance from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Malaysia had increased its sukuk issuance to US$19.4 billion as at endJune 2018, translating into a healthy 38.7 per cent market share of global sukuk issuance.

At the same time, Indonesia charted a 52.6 per cent jump to USD6.6 billion.

By contrast, the GCC posted a contraction of 19.1 per cent to USD21.3 billion. Nevertheless, the GCC’s sovereign sukuk issues took up the lion’s share (67.6 per cent) of its total sukuk issuance, reversing earlier market trends.

Prior to 2017, the percentage of sovereign sukuk issuance only averaged some 25 per cent.