Global sukuk issuances to reach US$150 billion in 2015

Chief executive officer of International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM), Ijlal Ahmed Alvi, said the target was achievable based on the sukuk issuances in the pipeline.

"The upward trend next year will also be helped by expectations of sustained demand from existing Islamic financial institutions and the Islamic bond issuances from various countries.

"In 2015 alone, we expect the global sukuk issuances to be more than US$30 billion," he said.

Ijlal said this to Bernama on the sidelines of the World Islamic Banking Conference 2014 held in Bahrain recently.

Sukuk issuance for project financing would be healthy next year, where growth was expected to come from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the Far East and the African region for development works, he said.

He said the sukuk market would not be greatly affected by the normalisation of interest rates in the US.

"If the economy is doing well, I think issuers will be encouraged to issue sukuk," he said.

Sukuk issuances are considered to be the fastest-growing component of the activities constituting Islamic finance in general.

Total global sukuk issuances are likely to be in excess of US$130 billion, and this would be the third year in a row that sukuk issuances would cross the mark set in 2012, according to IIFM's fourth edition of sukuk report for 2014.

It also said the total global sukuk issuances had grown by over 10 times to US$138 billion in 2013 from US$1.17 billion in 2001.

For 2013, the international sukuk issuances amounted to US$26 billion.