Category: Covid-19

Islamic financing is not a panacea for the middle-income trap, but has a more modest enabling role. Where coupled with appropriate policies, reliable institutions and adequately prepared projects, it may contribute to bridging the transition from factors-driven to productivity led convergence through financing of productive infrastructure, enterprises development and innovation and human capital formation. Why …

Artificial intelligence now appears in almost every development discussion. In Member Countries of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), it is usually presented as part of the answer to familiar challenges: low productivity, weak service delivery, financial exclusion, and institutional capacity gaps. That is understandable. But the phrase “affordable AI” can easily become too broad to …

The Covid-19 crisis caused a major economic slowdown worldwide. We need to mitigate the slowdown in a sustainable manner that not only provides short term stimulus, but also supports long-term growth, fairly distributed across the globe. Moreover, there are major challenges facing the financing of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This proposal aims to formulate …

Ideas generate knowledge, research develops and shapes it. But what we choose to explore is often subjective. Hence it is important what questions we ask and how we formulate them. I want to present six points for what matters in setting the direction of research in Islamic economics and finance. The purpose here is not …

The debt burden on developing countries is significant and debt servicing in this post-COVID-19 and war-torn era is difficult. Therefore, policymakers, as well as multilateral institutions are already quite concerned about the current debt vulnerabilities worldwide. Debt was already excessively high before the first COVID-19 lockdown and then the Ukrainian war is currently adding more …

IntroductionInflation may be defined as the decline of purchasing power of a determined currency over time. It also determines the erosion of living standards. Inflation may be measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a quantitative estimate of the inflation that may be captured in the rise of an average price level of a basket …

Islamic banks had shown stability during the global financial crisis compared to conventional banks. This is attributed to the difference in design and philosophy of the two bank types. Do Islamic banks also show superior stability in the wake of systemic risk? Analysis of the COVID-19 period provides an opportunity to assess the impact of …

Introduction The global economy is slowly recovering from the COVID-19 crisis, but the path to broad-based recovery is uncertain, with growth prospects diverging widely between advanced and developing countries. Many developing economies have been hit harder by the pandemic than advanced economies. Millions have been pushed into poverty, and food insecurity has sharply risen significantly …