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The Qatar Central Bank issued government Ijarah sukuk worth QAR 5 billion on behalf of the Ministry of Finance on August 25, 2026, dividing the sum equally between two tap tranches that together drew bids of QAR 5.5 billion. One QAR 2.5 billion addition to an existing issuance carries a maturity of January 16, 2029, and a yield of 4.75 percent while the second QAR 2.5 billion tap matures on August 24, 2030, at 4.90 percent. The central bank detailed the parameters in its official statement on the transaction.
According to a statement from the Qatar Central Bank, both tranches represent increases to already outstanding sukuk series rather than entirely new instruments. Qatar News Agency reported the issuance figures and noted that such tap sales have formed a consistent part of the government’s financing activity during 2026. Market reports indicate the central bank had already raised roughly QAR 22.8 billion through comparable domestic government bond and sukuk operations in the first seven months of the year, drawing cumulative bids of about QAR 57.3 billion across those sales.
Qatar News Agency reported that the latest operation follows a pattern seen in earlier 2026 issuances, including a QAR 6.5 billion sukuk sale in June that received approximately QAR 14.5 billion in bids and a QAR 4 billion transaction in May that attracted QAR 11.4 billion. The bid-to-cover ratio on the August 25 issuance stood at 1.1 times, lower than several prior rounds that exceeded two times coverage. Yields on the two tranches aligned closely with levels observed in preceding tap sales for similar maturities.
A report by Bait Al-Mashura Finance Consultations placed total Islamic finance assets in Qatar at QAR 718.5 billion for 2025, a 5.3 percent rise from the prior year, with Islamic banks holding QAR 616.5 billion of that total. The same report, drawing on central bank data, showed that the Qatar Central Bank issued QAR 10.1 billion in sukuk during 2025, accounting for 43.4 percent of all sukuk and bond issuance that year. Over the preceding five years the central bank had issued QAR 47.7 billion in sukuk, representing 44.2 percent of government sukuk and bond activity in that span.
The Ministry of Finance utilises the proceeds from these Ijarah sukuk for general government purposes, with the central bank acting as the issuance agent to integrate the instruments into the domestic market. As of late February 2026, 33 government sukuk were listed alongside 34 government bonds on the Qatar Stock Exchange, according to an Oxford Business Group sector overview. The regular cadence of such offerings has contributed to the expansion of the listed fixed-income universe while supporting liquidity in Shariah-compliant securities.
International law firms Latham & Watkins and White & Case advised on a separate $4 billion sovereign sukuk transaction completed by Qatar last week, the largest dollar-denominated issuance of its kind, which drew an order book exceeding $24 billion. That deal, distinct from the local-currency Ijarah operations, targeted general government purposes and marked the first international Islamic debt offering by the state in nine years. Bookrunners on the dollar transaction included HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Barwa Bank and QInvest.
