Sri Mulyani: The Sharia Financial Industry Is Immune To COVID-19

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that amidst the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance of the sharia industry is actually stable. In fact, the growth is higher when compared to conventional banking.

"What is interesting is that in the stressful conditions caused by COVID-19, national banking intermediation tends to decline. However, the performance of Islamic banking tends to be stable and grows higher than conventional banking," he said, during the Sharia Business and Academic Sinergy (SBAS) held virtually, Tuesday, December 29th.

According to Sri Mulyani, the growth of Islamic banking in the midst of a crisis is not the case this time. Previously, it also often happened in crisis conditions, one of which was in 2008.

Until September 2020, Islamic banking assets grew 10.97 percent compared to the same period last year. Sri Mulyani said, this number was higher than conventional banks, whose total assets only grew by 7.77 percent.

Meanwhile, the total assets of the Islamic financial industry until September 2020 reached IDR 1,710.16 trillion with a market share of 9.69 percent. The amount includes excluding Islamic shares.

As for details, the total Islamic financial assets consist of Islamic banking assets of IDR 575.85 trillion, the non-bank financial industry of IDR 111.44 trillion, and the Islamic capital market of IDR 1,022.87 trillion.

"During the last three decades since the establishment of the first Islamic bank, namely in 1992 (until today) Islamic finance has developed quite impressively," he said.