July 14, 2019

Issue of the second report on Islamic finance in the State of Qatar

Bait Al Mashura Financial Consultancy has issued its second annual report on Islamic finance in Qatar, which discusses the performance of Islamic finance institutions and products in the State of Qatar for the year 2018, with a cumulative study for the period 2014-2018.  Thanks to the urgent measures taken by the Government of the State of Qatar to address the crisis that was imposed in the middle of 2017, and the policies and structural reforms that were strengthened, the Government of Qatar succeeded in managing the repercussions of this crisis. In the financial sector, non-resident deposits were disrupted, while strong and conservative asset assessment policies were applied to address the expected shocks. The impact of this success embodied in changing the future perspective of Qatar by the international credit rating institutions to a stable outlook. For Islamic Finance Sector, 2018 was more powerful in enhancing the quality of its assets and it continued to achieve positive results. Within the Islamic Banking Sector, the banks made a profit of more than QR 6.5 billion at a high growth rate of 8.5% for 2017 driven by revenue amounted 10.4%. Islamic banks’ assets were declined with a simple rate of (0.6%), deposits by (1.1%) and the financing was declined by (3.3%). Islamic banks’ financing was focused on the private and personal sectors and moved towards the consumer, industrial and real estate sectors. In Takaful Insurance Sector, the assets of the policyholders in Takaful insurance companies increased by 14%, while the Takaful insurance contributions increased by 2.3%. Additionally, these companies have achieved insurance surplus of QR 46 million. As regard to the Islamic Finance Companies, the assets declined slightly by a rate of (0.6%) with variation in growth and decline among these companies. Despite the decrease in the revenues of the financing activities of these companies by (3%), it achieved profits of QR 105.6 million with a growth rate of 4.2% over 2017. As to the Islamic investment companies, the assets of the two Islamic investment companies decreased in 2018 at a rate of (12.5%), while the losses of the two companies reached QR (41.9) million. In the field of Sukuk, the issued Sukuk decreased at a rate of (43%), while Sukuk issuance by Islamic banks increased with a rate of 27%, the Islamic banks issued Sukuk with a total value of QR 12.6 billion. In Islamic investment funds, all these funds performed positively with an average of 6%, the NAV of the unit holders of these finances was QR365 million As for the QE Al Rayan Islamic Index, it recorded an increase with a percentage of 13.54%.

Islamic finance in Qatar – 2018