Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 in MENA region and the Role of Islamic Finance

M. Kabir Hassan, Mustafa Raza Rabbani, Yomna Abdulla

Abstract


This paper analyses the socio-economic impact of the noble Corona virus (COVID-19) on ‘Middle East and North Africa’ (MENA) region as well as the role and opportunities of Islamic finance post COVID-19. The findings show that pandemic has affected the MENA region massively like any other region in the world. Since around 69% of the word’s crude oil supply is from this region alone, this causes it to suffer from dual shocks of COVID-19 pandemic as well as the declining crude prices that is caused by shocks from both ends, negative supply shock and a negative demand shock. The 19 countries in MENA region include from some of the richest countries of the world such as, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, to some of the most vulnerable, poor and war ridden countries like Yemen, Syria, and Morocco. To mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic, we suggest some immediate actions that can be taken such as a public fund to support health system, financial support to individuals and SME’s, financial support to corporations in order to prevent job loss and layoff and assurance of liquidity in domestic markets to prevent liquidity crunch. Finally, the paper analyses the role of Islamic finance in the region in recovery post COVID-19 and show that Islamic finance can be utilized as an alternative financial system in providing the relief to the COVID-19 affected people and entrepreneurs.



Keywords


Africa; COVID 19; Fintech; Economic policy; Islamic Finance; Financial crisis; GCC; MENA; Social policy; stimulus package

Full Text:

PDF

References


Achou, B., Boisclair, D., D’Astous, P., Fonseca, R., Glenzer, F., & Michaud, P.-C. (2020). Early Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on household finances in Quebec. Canadian Public Policy, 46(3), S217–S235. https://doi.org/10.3138/CPP.2020-087

Ali, M. M., Bashar, A., Rabbani, M. R., & Abdullah, Y. (2020). Transforming Business Decision Making with Internet of Things ( IoT ) and Machine Learning ( ML ). 2020 International Conference on Decision Aid Sciences and Application (DASA), Sakheer, Bahrain, 2020, Pp. 674-679, Doi: 10.1109/DASA51403.2020.9317174.

Alkhamis, A., Hassan, A., & Cosgrove, P. (2014). Financing healthcare in Gulf Cooperation Council countries: A focus on Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Health Planning and Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.2213

Alkhan, A. M., & Hassan, M. K. (2020). Does Islamic microfinance serve maqāsid al-shari’a? Borsa Istanbul Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bir.2020.07.002

Atif, M., Hassan, M. K., Rabbani, M. R., & Khan, S. (2021). 6 Islamic FinTech. In COVID-19 and Islamic Social Finance, 91.

Aydın, L., & Ari, I. (2020). The impact of Covid-19 on Turkey’s non-recoverable economic sectors compensating with falling crude oil prices: A computable general equilibrium analysis. Energy Exploration and Exploitation, 38(5), 1810–1830. https://doi.org/10.1177/0144598720934007

Boukhatem, J., & Ben Moussa, F. (2018). The effect of Islamic banks on GDP growth: Some evidence from selected MENA countries. Borsa Istanbul Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bir.2017.11.004

Catherine, S., Miller, M., & Sarin, N. (2020). Relaxing household liquidity constraints through social security. Journal of Public Economics, 189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104243

Chowdhury, P., & Shumon, R. (2020). Minimizing the gap between expectation and ability: Strategies for smes to implement social sustainability practices. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(16). https://doi.org/10.3390/SU12166408

Czeczeli, V., Kolozsi, P. P., Kutasi, G., & Marton, Á. (2020). Economic exposure and crisis resilience in exogenous shock: The short-term economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic in the EU. Public Finance Quarterly, 65(3), 321–347. https://doi.org/10.35551/PFQ_2020_3_1

Damak, M., Roy, D., & Mensah, S. (2020). Islamic Finance 2020-2021: COVID-19 Offers An Opportunity For Transformative Developments. S&P Global.

Dinar Standard. (2019). State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2019/20. In Dubai International Financial Centre.

Dinar Standard. (2020). State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2020/21. In Dubai International Financial Centre. https://haladinar.io/hdn/doc/report2018.pdf

Dureab, F., Al-Awlaqi, S., & Jahn, A. (2020). COVID-19 in Yemen: preparedness measures in a fragile state. In The Lancet Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30101-8

Duszak, R., Maze, J., Sessa, C., Fleishon, H. B., Golding, L. P., Nicola, G. N., & Hughes, D. R. (2020). Characteristics of COVID-19 Community Practice Declines in Noninvasive Diagnostic Imaging Professional Work. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 17(11), 1453–1459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2020.06.031

Ehrlich, J. A., Ghimire, S., Khraiche, M., & Raza, M. F. (2020). COVID-19 countermeasures, sporting events, and the financial impacts to the North American leagues. Managerial Finance. https://doi.org/10.1108/MF-05-2020-0275

Eichenauer, V., & Sturm, J.-E. (2020). The economic policy measures of Switzerland at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic . Perspektiven Der Wirtschaftspolitik, 21(3), 290–300. https://doi.org/10.1515/pwp-2020-0027

Erceg, N., Ružojčić, M., & Galić, Z. (2020). Misbehaving in the Corona crisis: The role of anxiety and unfounded beliefs. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01040-4

GCC-STAT. (2020). final report covid19 .pdf.

Ghani, F. (2020). Covid-19 outbreak – immediate and long-term impacts on the dental profession. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 36(COVID19-S4), S126–S129. https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2698

Hassan, M. K., Rabbani, M. R., & Ali, M. A. (2020). Challenges for the Islamic Finance and banking in post COVID era and the role of Fintech. Journal of Economic Cooperation and Development, 43(3).

Hassan, M.K., & Rabbani, M. R. (2021). Islamic Fintech, Blockchain & Crowdfunding: current landscape & path forward.

Hassan, M.K., Rabbani, M. R., Atif, M., & Ali, A. M. (2021).

Sharia governance of Islamic financial institutions and the role of AAOIFI: A systematic literature review and future research agenda. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, In press.

Hassan, M.K., Rabbani, M. R., Khan, S., & Ali, M. A. M. (2021). An Islamic Finance Perspective of Crowdfunding and Peer to Peer Lending.

Hassan, M Kabir, & Soumaré, I. (2015). Guarantees and Profit-Sharing Contracts in Project Financing. Journal of Business Ethics.

Hepburn, C., O’Callaghan, B., Stern, N., Stiglitz, J., & Zenghelis, D. (2020). Will COVID-19 fiscal recovery packages accelerate or retard progress on climate change? Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 36, S359–S381. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/graa015

IMF. (2020). Policy Responses to COVID19. In Imf.

Iqbal, Z., & Lewis, M. K. (2009). An islamic perspective on governance. In An Islamic Perspective on Governance. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781848449220

Islamic Development Bank Group. (2020). the Covid-19 Crisis and Islamic Finance (Issue September). https://irti.org/product/the-covid-19-crisis-and-islamic-finance/

Islamic finance: principles and practice. (2010). Choice Reviews Online. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.48-2205

Khan, S., Hassan, M. K., & Rabbani, M. R. (2021). An Artificial Intelligence-based Islamic FinTech model on Qardh-Al-Hasan for COVID 19 affected SMEs. In ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE FINANCIAL SYSTEM (p. In press).

Khan, Shahnawaz;, & Rabbani, M. R. (2021). Artificial Intelligence and NLP based Chatbot as Islamic Banking and Finance Expert. International Journal of Information Retrieval Research, In press.

Khan, Shahnawaz, & Rabbani, M. R. (2020). Chatbot as Islamic Finance Expert (CaIFE): When finance meets Artificial Intelligence. 2020 International Conference on Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing (CLNLP 2020), Seoul, South Korea.

Khan, Shahnawaz, & Rabbani, M. R. (2021). In Depth Analysis of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Sharia Compliance. International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, In press, In press. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbir.2020.10033066

Kim, D. W., Yu, J. S., & Hassan, M. K. (2018). Financial inclusion and economic growth in OIC countries. Research in International Business and Finance. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2017.07.178

Li, T., Chung, H. K., Pireku, P. K., Beitzel, B. F., Sanborn, M. A., Tang, C. Y., Hammer, R., Ritter, D., Wan, X., Berry, I. M., & Hang, J. (2020). Rapid High Throughput Whole Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 by using One-step RT-PCR Amplification with Integrated Microfluidic System and Next-Gen Sequencing. BioRxiv.

McKibben, W., & Fernando, R. (2020). Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis The Global Macroeconomic Impacts of COVID-19: Seven Scenarios. Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis.

Mohammad, Khan, S., Mustafa, & Yannis. (2020). An Artificial Intelligence and NLP based Islamic FinTech Model Combining Zakat and Qardh-Al-Hasan for Countering the Adverse Impact of COVID 19 on SMEs and Individuals. International Journal of Economics and Business Administration. https://doi.org/10.35808/ijeba/466

Naceur, S. Ben, & Ghazouani, S. (2007). Stock markets, banks, and economic growth: Empirical evidence from the MENA region. Research in International Business and Finance. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2006.05.002

Nicola, M, Alsafi, Z., Sohrabi, C., Kerwan, A., Al-Jabir, A., Iosifidis, C., Agha, M., & Agha, R. (2020). The socio-economic implications of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19): A review. International Journal of Surgery, 78, 185–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.04.018

Nicola, Maria, Alsafi, Z., Sohrabi, C., Kerwan, A., Al-Jabir, A., Iosifidis, C., Agha, M., & Agha, R. (2020). The socio-economic implications of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19): A review. In International Journal of Surgery. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.04.018

Ozili, P. (2020a). COVID-19 in Africa: socio-economic impact, policy response and opportunities. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-05-2020-0171

Ozili, P. (2020b). COVID-19 in Africa: socio-economic impact, policy response and opportunities. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 99617. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-05-2020-0171

Ozili, P. K., & Arun, T. (2020). Spillover of COVID-19: Impact on the Global Economy. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3562570

Patmawati, P. (2016). DAKWAH PADA MASA UMAR BIN KHATTAB. Al-Hikmah. https://doi.org/10.24260/al-hikmah.v10i1.544

Rabbani, M. R., Khan, S., Hassan, M. K., & Ali, M. (2021). 7 Artificial intelligence and Natural language processing (NLP) based FinTech model of Zakat for poverty alleviation and sustainable development for Muslims in India. In ICOVID-19 and Islamic Social Finance: 104.

Rabbani, M. R., Ali, M. A. M., Rahiman, H., Atif, M., Zulfikar, Z., & Naseem, Y. (2021). The response of Islamic financial service to Covid-19 pandemic: The social open innovation of financial system. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity.

Rabbani, M. R. (2020). The competitive structure and strategic positioning of commercial banks in Saudi Arabia. International Journal on Emerging Technologies, 11(3), 43–46.

Rabbani, M. R., Abdullah, Y., Bashar, A., Khan, S., & Ali, M. A. M. (2020). Embracing of Fintech in Islamic Finance in the post COVID era. 2020 International Conference on Decision Aid Sciences and Application (DASA), Sakheer, Bahrain, 2020, Doi: 10.1109/DASA51403.2020.9317196., 1230–1234.

Rabbani, M. R., Khan, S., & Thalassinos, E. I. (2020). FinTech, blockchain and Islamic finance: An extensive literature review. International Journal of Economics and Business Administration, 8(2), 65–86. https://doi.org/10.35808/ijeba/444

Salisu, A. A., Ebuh, G. U., & Usman, N. (2020). Revisiting oil-stock nexus during COVID-19 pandemic: Some preliminary results. International Review of Economics and Finance, 69, 280–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iref.2020.06.023

Setiawan, R., Nashrullah, M. R., Mulyani, A., & Mubarok, M. S. (2019). Architecture information system for zakat, infaq and sadaqah management institutions (A. A.G., N. A.B.D., W. I., D. A.A., & A. C.U. (Eds.); Vol. 1402, Issue 2). Institute of Physics Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1402/2/022082

Sharif, A., Aloui, C., & Yarovaya, L. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic, oil prices, stock market, geopolitical risk and policy uncertainty nexus in the US economy: Fresh evidence from the wavelet-based approach. International Review of Financial Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2020.101496

Singer, A. (2006). Soup and sadaqa: Charity in Islamic societies. Historical Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2281.2006.00363.x

Sun, H., Rabbani, M. R., Sial, M. S., Yu, S., Filipe, J. A., & Cherian, J. (2020). Identifying Big Data’s Opportunities, Challenges, and Implications in Finance. Mathematics, 8(10). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/math8101738

Sun, Huidong;, Rabbani, M. R., Naveed, A., Sial, M. S., Guping, C., Zia-ud-din, M., & Fu, Q. (2020). CSR, Co-Creation and Green Consumer Loyalty: Are Green Banking Initiatives Important? A Moderated Mediation Approach from an Emerging Economy. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(24), 10688.

Syed, M. H., Khan, S., Rabbani, M. R., & Thalassinos, Y. E. (2020). An artificial intelligence and NLP based Islamic FinTech model combining zakat and Qardh-Al-Hasan for countering the adverse impact of COVID 19 on SMEs and individuals. International Journal of Economics and Business Administration, 8(2), 351–364. https://doi.org/10.35808/IJEBA/466

The, F. O. R., & Eastnorth, M. (2018). NEW (Issue October).

UNDP. (2020). 2020 Human Development Perspective Tackling Social Norms: A game changer for gender inequalities. United Nations Development Programme.

Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2011). Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028020

Wójcik, D. (2020). Financial geography II: The impacts of FinTech – Financial sector and centres, regulation and stability, inclusion and governance. Progress in Human Geography. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132520959825

World Bank. (2020). Food Security and Covid-19. Understanding Poverty.

Yu, J. S., & Hassan, M. K. (2008). Global and regional integration of the Middle East and North African (MENA) stock markets. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qref.2006.06.003




DOI: https://doi.org/10.18196/ijief.v4i1.10466

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2021 International Journal of Islamic Economics and Finance (IJIEF)

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


International Journal of Islamic Economics and Finance (IJIEF)
International Program for Islamic Economics and Finance 
Department of Economics  
Faculty of Economics and Business
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta

Office:
Pascasarjana Building, Ground Floor
Jl. Brawijaya (Ringroad Selatan), Kasihan, Bantul
D.I. Yogyakarta 55183, INDONESIA
Official email: ijief@umy.ac.id