Research Monitor Weekly Newsletter - 25-Jul-12

Sukuk’s Best Year Ever

Featured teaser: With sukuk outperforming conventional bonds in the Gulf, the Islamic bonds market will set new records in 2012, writes Zawya’s Celine Salloum. Story page head: The whole world is turning to Islamic bonds By Celine Salloum of Zawya With investor demand for Islamic bonds growing, the growth in Islamic ﬁnance as an emerging global ﬁnancial industry can be attributed to a multitude of factors. These include a growing global Muslim population, rising oil wealth and the emergence of multiple new issuers combined with the increase in the global acceptability, competitiveness and availability of Islamic investment products. Access to a larger investor universe is seen as a key advantage of structuring Islamic products. With sukuk continuing to outperform conventional bonds in the Gulf region in Q2 2012, the Islamic bonds market is set to create new records in 2012. “Today, countries all over the world are turning to Islamic capital markets for ...

The Qatari Contradiction

Featured teaser: In spite of being one of the richest countries in the world and an aggressive global investor, Qatar saw interest in its funds industry sliding in 2011, writes Zawya’s Celine Salloum. Story page head: Qatar continues to back asset management industry By Celine Salloum of Zawya Qatar, a tiny country situated on a small, thumb-shaped neck of land off the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula, and once one of the poorest Gulf States, has been ranked as the world’s richest country per capita by Forbes magazine. The oil and gas sector dominates the economy with an estimated 56% of nominal GDP in 2011. Qatar, which will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup and recently lost a bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games, has been a high-profile global investor. The development of Qatar as a regional hub for asset management is being strongly supported by the Qatar Financial Center Authority, the commercial arm of the Qatar Financial Center. While all types and categories ...

Conformity

A Japanese proverb says, “The nail that sticks out will be hammered down.” Society tries to place many rules on us as individuals as to what is acceptable and what is not. We must decide for ourselves whether to conform to such a social decorum. We are taught as soon as we are old enough to grasp the idea that it is bad to be unique and to avoid being different. At some point, however, we must decide within ourselves whether to spend every day trying to be like everyone else because society says we should or living each day true to ourselves. Our strength as a person is proven through what we decide. E. E. Cummings once said, "To be nobody but yourself-in a world which is doing it's best night and day to make you like everyone else-means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." The benefits of being true to ourselves greatly outweigh any negative aspects of choosing that path. One of the most obvious advantages of bein...

Celine Salloum

Search This Blog