Siew Suet Ming; Khairun Najmi Saripudin; Marjan Muhammad (RAM Rating Services Berhad and INCEIF University, 2023)
The global sukuk market contracted 6% y-o-y in 2022 to USD154 bil, driven mainly by a drop in sukuk issuances from key market players, more specifically the GCC and Indonesia. In the GCC region, the Ukraine conflict resulted in supply chain disruptions which resulted in higher oil prices. This led to lower funding requirements by the GCC government and consequently, smaller sovereign sukuk issuances. Inflationary pressures, rate hiking throughout the year and geopolitical tensions created an unfavourable economic environment for most of global issuers as well. Despite that, the global sukuk market fared well considering the record number of rate hikes in 2022. Malaysia and Saudi Arabia remained as the two largest sukuk issuers commanding 63% of issuances in 2022. Sovereign sukuk was the mainstay form of sukuk issuance constituting 57.3% of the total. Corporate sukuk issuances staged a comeback in 4Q 2022, largely contributed by Malaysian corporates, after consecutive quarters of decline demonstrating promising signs of recovery going into 2023 as rates are expected to stabilise. The green and sustainability sukuk market experienced a new high of US$8.1 bil issuances in 2022 (2021: US$6 bil, unlike the wider global sukuk market). Demand was driven mainly by investors with ESG-centric investment mandates. This trend is expected to continue into 2023 as the current supply of ESG shariah-compliant issuances fall short of this demand. Notable issuances included Dubai Islamic Bank's US$750 mil sustainable Sukuk in November 2022.
