Total fixed income issuance in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries reached $105.9bn in 2018, down by 14.1% from $123.3bn in 2017. Aggregate fixed income in 2018 included $37.4bn in sovereign bonds, or 35.3% of the total, followed by corporate bond issuance at $35bn (33.1%), sovereign sukuk at $21.3bn (20.1%) and corporate sukuk at $12.1bn (11.4%). Aggregate bonds and sukuk issued by GCC sovereigns reached $58.7bn, or 55.5% of total fixed income issuance in the region, while bonds and sukuk issued by corporates in the GCC amounted to $47.1bn or 44.5% of the total. On a country basis, total fixed income issuance in Saudi Arabia reached $32.5bn in 2018 and accounted for 30.7% of the region's total issuance, followed by Qatar with $29.1bn (27.5%), the UAE with $28.2bn (26.6%), Oman with $11.7bn (11%), Bahrain with $3.5bn (3.3%) and Kuwait with $1bn (0.9%). On a monthly basis, GCC sovereigns issued $11.5bn in bonds and sukuk in January, $300m in February, $1.8bn in March, $27.2bn in April, $800m in May, $3.6bn in June, $3.3bn in July, $400m in August, $5.3bn in September, $3.2bn in October, $1bn in November and $300m in December 2018. In parallel, corporates in the GCC issued $2.2bn in bonds and sukuk in January, $8bn in February, $6.4bn in March, $6.1bn in April, $3.4bn in May, $800m in June, $500m in July, $1.3bn in August, $7.6bn in September, $4.9bn in October, $4.2bn in November and $1.7bn in December 2018.
Source: KAMCO