Category: Islamic Finance

Introduction Over the past few decades, Islamic finance has gained significant recognition as a viable alternative to conventional finance. In the early 2000s, the estimated value of Islamic finance assets was roughly USD 200 billion. Despite facing various financial crises, the industry has seen remarkable growth and is now valued at USD 3.25 trillion as …

Detective Gregory: Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention? Sherlock Holmes: To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Detective Gregory: The dog did nothing in the night-time. Sherlock Holmes: That was the curious incident! The Adventure of Silver Blaze   There is something curious about …

Introduction While poverty is generally measured using a monetary basis, it is widely acknowledged that poverty is characterized by multiple dimensions beyond income poverty. This blog post compares the various multidimensional measures of poverty and finds that some of the gains in poverty eradication in the previous decades are likely lost due to the COVID-19 …

Introduction Semiconductors, commonly known as chips, are crucial parts of our daily lives. In every electronic device we use, from smartphones to computers and automobiles to coffee machines, chips constitute one of the most critical components. Chips are packed with thousands or billions of transistors on a piece of small, coin-sized silicon or germanium. They …

Inflation is a major problem for modern economies. Over the years, the problem shifted from one extreme to the other: from “the great inflation” in the 1960s and 1970s, to “the death of inflation”  and “inflation myth” in the 1990s and 2000s, to the “deflation monster” in 2010s,  and most recently, to “the biggest inflation …

Introduction Climate change is a systemic risk for the whole world. Due to the growing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, developing countries are increasingly exposed to the effects of climate change. By 2030, climate change has the potential to push up to 132 million people into extreme poverty, making it more difficult for …

Cryptocurrencies are causing measurable disruptions in the finance world. The speculative nature of many of these currencies casts doubts on their economic value and their role in improving the prosperity of the lives of human beings. But the underlying technology, the blockchain technology and the cryptographic techniques, are obviously of immense potential. The question, however, …

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, being the largest Islamic finance market globally in economies with dual financial systems (comprising both conventional and Islamic financial sectors) is poised to become a global leader in the Islamic financial services industry. This is one of the key messages that is conveyed by the first detailed analysis of Islamic …

“Blockchain technology is going to change everything”. This claim was made many times over the past several years in many different forms. And we are still waiting to see the change. Skeptics, like Jesse Fredrik, argue that blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. The technology is yet to prove itself and deliver on …