Total fixed income issuance in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries reached $36.6bn in the first quarter of 2019, up by 21.2% from $30.2bn in the same quarter of 2018. Aggregate fixed income in the first three months of 2019 consisted of $21.7bn in sovereign bonds, or 59.3% of the total, followed by sovereign sukuk at $6.6bn (18%), corporate bond issuance at $4.8bn (13.1%), and corporate sukuk at $3.5bn (9.6%). Aggregate bonds and sukuk issued by GCC sovereigns reached $28.3bn, or 77.3% of total fixed income issuance in the region in the first quarter of the year, while bonds and sukuk issued by corporates in the region amounted to $8.3bn or 22.7% of the total. On a monthly basis, GCC sovereigns issued $12.6bn in bonds and sukuk in January, $1.9bn in February and $13.8bn in March 2019. In parallel, corporates in the GCC issued $1.7bn in bonds and sukuk in January, $2.3bn in February and $4.3bn in March 2019. Sovereign issuance in March 2019 consisted of $12bn in sovereign bonds issued by Qatar, $981.3m in sovereign sukuk issued by Saudi Arabia and $750m in sovereign bonds issued by the UAE. In parallel, corporate issuance in the covered month included $1.65bn in corporate bonds and $1.25bn in corporate sukuk issued by Qatar, $500m in corporate sukuk issued by Saudi Arabia, and $238.8m in corporate bonds issued by the UAE.  
Source: KAMCO