Tightening global liquidity amid a flood of oil supply suppressing oil prices has made market conditions tough to navigate, but from these choppy waters emerge opportunities for Islamic finance. This week, we dive deep into one of these new avenues: Shariah compliant shipping finance, identifying opportunities, demand and its outlook.
We zoom closer into the Halal industry this week with a feature, report and analysis on the Halal universe and how Islamic finance factors into the bigger Halal picture. Our editorial team explores the new low fee movement in Shariah funds, and takes a closer look at Libya as well as the sovereign Sukuk landscape. There are interesting and insightful commentaries from our resident columnists: Dr Ken Baldwin and Mohammad Raafi Hossain while our IFN Correspondents bring you updates from Maldives, Russia, Indonesia and Malaysia. We have special reports on the financial performance of Standard Chartered (and what it means) as well as the real estate market in the US, and we round off this week’s issue with a country feature on Germany.
As we prepare to host Asia’s biggest Islamic finance event – the IFN Asia Forum – in Jakarta for the first time, we look forward to bringing you another bumper issue next week and as usual, hope you find this week’s issue an enjoyable and informative read.