Fitch Ratings 2019 Outlook: Gulf Cooperation Council Islamic Banks

...Sector Outlook: Stable The 2019 sector outlook for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Islamic banks is stable, reflecting stronger economic grow th led by higher oil prices, w hich w e expect to contribute to credit fundamentals. Credit grow th w ill remain w eak at about 5% ¡ still above financing grow th at conventional banks ¡ and w ill increase from 2018 levels in most countries. Fitch Ratings expects asset-quality metrics to deteriorate slightly. We expect liquidity to remain strong. We expect capital levels to remain mostly unchanged in 2019. Earnings w ill remain high, benefiting from increasing interest rates in most countries. Rating Outlook: Stable Fitch has Stable Outlooks on all rated Islamic banks in the GCC. This predominantly reflects stable state ability to provide support to domestic Islamic banks. Rating Distribution Weighting: All Islam ic Banks Are Investm ent Grade All Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) assigned by Fitch to Islamic banks in the GCC are investment grade, 89%...

Outlook