Proceedings of the 12th Meeting of the COMCEC
Financial Cooperation Working Group
3
2. Financial Outlook of the OIC Member Countries
Mr. Cezmi ONAT, financial sector specialist at the COMCEC Coordination Office, presented the
main findings of the Financial Outlook of the OIC Member Countries in 2018. In his
presentation, Mr. ONAT focused on the recent financial developments in the global financial
system and financial outlook of the OIC Member Countries. Mr. ONAT underlined that while
preparing the report, the various sources of information have been used, such as the World
Economic Outlook of the IMF, the World Bank database, the UN reports etc.
Mr. ONAT stated that the presentation consists of three chapters: recent global economic and
financial developments; financial developments in the OIC member countries; and Islamic
finance.
In the first part of the presentation, Mr. ONAT presented an evaluation of global economic
developments based on global regions and economic growth in the OIC member countries. Mr.
ONAT expressed that global growth projection is downwardly revised from 3 percent to 2.9
percent in 2019 with reference to World Bank Global Economic Prospects Report. Mr. ONAT
stated that the OIC member countries’ growth rates were analyzed based on income levels
according to World Bank Income Grouping Methodology. The OIC member countries average
growth rate is projected to reach 4.1 percent in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, against the slowdown
in global economy, the OIC member countries growth rate is projected to reach at 4.8 percent
in 2020 and 4.7 in 2021.
In the second part of the presentation, Mr. ONAT mentioned about the financial developments
in the OIC member countries. He emphasized that in the relevant section of the COMCEC
Finance Outlook, an extensive dataset including more than 200 economies and the annual data
from 1960 to July 2018 were utilized. Furthermore, Mr. ONAT expressed that the Outlook
provides four main measures of the financial systems. These measures are (1) Financial
Access: the degree to which individuals can and do use financial institutions and markets, (2)
Financial Depth: the size of financial institutions and markets, (3) Financial Efficiency: the
efficiency of financial institutions and markets in providing financial services, and (4) Financial
Stability: the stability of financial institutions and markets. He mentioned that in order to
achieve a well-functioning system, financial markets require these measures.
After summarizing the features of the dataset, Mr. ONAT stated that the OIC member countries
have been categorized in four major groups according to the World Bank Income Grouping
Methodology: OIC-Low income group; OIC-Lower middle income group; OIC-Upper middle
income; and OIC-High income group. All these groups along with the OIC average and world
average have been analyzed by using the following indicators under the measures of depth,
access, efficiency, and stability: (i) Depth: private credit by deposit money banks to GDP,
deposit money banks' assets to GDP, stock market capitalization; (ii) Access: bank accounts per
1,000 adults, bank branches per 100,000 adults, and Market Capitalization Excluding Top 10
Companies to Total Market Capitalization; (iii) Efficiency: bank lending-deposit spread, bank