Sukuk issuance surged by 36.1% year-on-year to hit $252.3 billion in 2021, according to Fitch Ratings on Tuesday.
Central banks, governments, and multilateral institutions dominated sukuk issuances, the global rating agency said in a statement.
A sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance, which complies with Islamic religious law, also known as Sharia.
The agency highlighted that local-currency sukuk amounted to 80% of sukuk issuance, while hard-currency issuance amounted to 20%.
Some 41.2% of all sukuk issued last year were in Indonesian rupiah, followed by US dollar (19.4%), Malaysian ringgit (16.4%), Saudi riyal (13.5%), and Turkish lira (5%), it added.
The agency stressed that sukuk volumes are expected to grow in 2022 and to remain a key financing source in core Islamic finance markets.
“Growth will be anchored by robust Islamic investor appetite, funding diversification goals, and Islamic-finance development agendas in a number of countries,” said Bashar Al-Natoor, the global head of Islamic Finance at Fitch.
The rating agency added that global outstanding sukuk reached $711.3 billion in 2021, an annual rise of 12.7%.
