The year 2015 is so far a year of stagnation faced by the Islamic banking industry. Up to August 2015, the latest available data showed the growth of the Islamic banking industry is only at 0.42% (Table 1). This will be the slowest-ever growth of the industry in the last five years. Indeed, the figure may change by the end of the year, but it is most likely that the growth in 2015 will not exceed the already slow growth in 2014, when the Islamic banking industry only recorded 12.4% growth.
Like 2014, the year 2015 also shows the increasingly important role played by government Sukuk issuance in maintaining the growth of the Islamic finance industry. In fact, 2015 marks the first time that the amount of Islamic securities issued by the government has outpaced Islamic banking assets. Thus, government Islamic securities issuance is now the most dominant player in the Indonesian Islamic finance industry.
Actually, although they are not that significant compared to the government Islamic securities issuance and the Islamic banking assets, there is still growth in other segments of the Islamic finance industry such as corporate Sukuk, insurance, and rural banks. Islamic life insurance assets seem to have made relatively faster growth in the last four years compared to the Islamic banking industry. Corporate Sukuk, although still small, has also recorded better growth compared to 2014.
