(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The UAE has been ranked third among Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) economies in the inaugural 2015 Islamic Growth Markets Investment Index, which was released on Tuesday.
The investment potential across the 57 OIC countries is "well above world average" as the member countries represent a combined GDP of $6.7 trillion in 2013 and these countries are projected to grow at a higher rate of 5.4 per cent in 2015-19 than rest of the world (3.6 per cent) or Bric nations (3.9 per cent), according to the Islamic Growth Markets Investment Report 2015.
Thomson Reuters, in partnership with Dinar Standard, an Islamic markets research and advisory firm, presented the key findings of the report during the Global Islamic Investment Gateway conference in Bahrain.
The report also creates for the first time an investment index ranking OIC members' investment potential linked to key sectors across the region. Malaysia, Indonesia and the UAE lead the 2015 Islamic Growth Markets Investment Index, which ranks countries investment potential relatively within the OIC member country grouping. The index is based on a set of nine metrics covering the categories of a country's growth fundamentals, growth momentum, investment momentum and relative country risk.
Indonesia showed the strongest growth fundamentals among the top three having the highest population (249 million, 2013) and GDP ($870 billion, 2013), while Malaysia the strongest growth and investment momentum (217 per cent FDI inflows growth 2009-13). GCC economies led by the UAE are also on the top ten list, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Other markets on the top 10 include Kazakhstan, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, and Mozambique.
"The purpose of the Islamic Growth Markets Investment Report 2015 is to present a new view of looking at investment opportunities across the OIC member countries," Dr Sayd Farook, global head of Islamic capital market at Thomson Reuters, said in a statement.
"Focused on fast-growing consumer-driven sector clusters of food, retail, tourism, health and others, as well as government spending driven infrastructure and construction, the report addresses a gap of looking at investment opportunities across the full geographic spectrum of these growth markets and their global value chain."
Key sectors
The top OIC sector clusters identified are energy, food and agriculture, electronics, travel and transportation, metals, chemical and allied, plastics/rubber, textiles and related, infrastructure and construction, and health products and services.
Energy is the largest OIC sector cluster by virtue of aggregate score derived from exports volume, imports and domestic consumption across OIC markets. Energy sector cluster exports were the highest within OIC worth $1.3 trillion in 2013 representing 43 per cent of global exports.
Food and agriculture is the second-largest and its exports were $118 billion in 2013, representing eight per cent of global exports. Domestic demand value from food sector across OIC is the highest among all sector clusters and estimated at $974 billion, representing 16 per cent of global food consumption.
Travel and transportation is the third-largest OIC sector cluster, and its exports were $192 billion in 2013, representing six per cent of global exports.
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