Indonesia delays its first dollar sukuk issuance

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s finance ministry has postponed its first dollar Islamic bonds, or sukuk, to November from October due to lower business activities during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a senior official said yesterday.

The government had said it expected to sell dollar sukuk to raise as much as US$1 billion in October and rupiah Islamic bonds equivalent of about US$1 billion in August to help plug the budget deficit.

“We revised the schedule for international sukuk issuance due to the fasting period and Eid Al-Fitr. In the Middle East, business activities are minimal,” the ministry’s treasury director general, Rahmat Waluyanto, told reporters.

“The issuance is likely to be, at the latest, in the second week of November.” - Reuters