A report by the Standard & Poor's global rating agency predicted that the Islamic banks in the GCC will maintain their strong performance over the next two years and beyond, after experiencing difficult market conditions last year.
Mohamed Damak, the head of Islamic finance at the agency said that "the growth and expansion of Islamic banks in the Gulf was less than the growth of the traditional banks for the first time in five years," pointing out "the growth gap has not exceeded 1% and the same growth pattern is likely to continue for the Islamic and ordinary banks in 2019 and 2020. "
The agency expects the ordinary and Islamic banks to record close levels of growth of around 5% this year and next year as a result of several factors, including the stability of the economic growth of the countries of the region despite the expected positive results from the hosting of “Expo 2020” and raising the levels of government spending.
Customers' deposits in Gulf Islamic banks grew by 2.5% last year, compared to 6.4% in 2017. Overall, however, the financial position of these banks remained strong due to limited lending growth and compared to the conventional banks.
Source: (Al Khaleej newspaper, Edited)
