GCC Region’s Bond Maturities to Hit Roof by 2030

GCC governments are expected to see elevated levels of maturities over the next five years, especially for bond issuances during the years after the pandemic, the Kuwait-based Kamco Invest said in an update on the GCC Fixed Income Market.

Citing data from Bloomberg, the report said that GCC sovereign maturities stood at $226.1 billion over the next five years (2025-2029), whereas corporate maturities were slightly lower at $223 billion.

Both bond and sukuk maturities are expected to remain elevated starting from 2025 until 2029 and then gradually taper for the rest of the tenor. The higher maturities during the next five years reflects a number of short-term (less than 5-year maturity) issuances by governments and corporates.

A majority of these maturities are denominated in USD at 59.3% followed by local currency issuances in Saudi and Qatar Riyals at 16.9% and 7%, respectively. In addition, due to the credit rating profile of the GCC governments, a majority of these maturities are in the high investment grade or A rated instruments with maturities of $158.5 billion while maturities of investment grade instruments stood at 171.7 billion.

In terms of type of instruments, conventional bonds dominate with $278 billion in maturities over the next five years, whereas sukuk maturities are expected to be at $171 billion. With regard to conventional bond maturities, corporate maturities stood at $144.3 billion, surpassing government bond maturities at $133.7 billion.

In the sukuk market, government sukuk maturities stood at $92.4 billion as against corporate sukuk maturities at $78.6 billion.

Saudi Maturities Biggest

At the country level, Saudi Arabia continues to see the biggest fixed income maturities during 2025-2029 and the Kingdom is expected to see maturities of $166 billion until 2029 followed by the UAE and Qatari issuers at $146.8 billion and $74.7 billion respectively.

However, bulk of the maturities in Saudi Arabia are for bonds/sukuk issued by the government at $96.7 billion while in the case of UAE, the lion’s share of maturities is for instruments issued by corporates at $119.1 billion. Kuwait has the smallest maturities in five years at $13.2 billion while the number for Oman and Bahrain stood at around $24 billion each.

In terms of sector maturities, banks and other financial services sector have $167.9 billion in maturities in the next five years, accounting for around 75.3% of the total corporate maturities and 37.4% of the total maturities in the GCC until 2029.

The energy sector was next with maturities of $21 billion or 9.4% of GCC corporate maturities until 2029 followed by Utilities and Materials at $11.3 billion and $7.2 billion, respectively. Banks in UAE have the biggest maturities over the next five years at $65.5 billion followed by Qatari banks with maturities of $23.2 billion.

Banks in UAE and Qatar accounted for 39.8% of total corporate maturities in the GCC and 19.8% of total bonds/sukuk maturities over the next five years in the GCC. Other financial services and real estate sectors were next with maturities of $27.7 billion and $13.2 billion until 2029.

Issuances On Track in 2025

Aggregate issuances of bonds and sukuks in the GCC stood at $100.3 billion during the first half of this year compared with $128.8 billion during the same period in 2024, resulting in a y-o-y decline of $28.5 billion or 22.1%. The decline was mainly led by more than 50% decline in government issuances in 1H-2025 while an increase in corporate issuances partially offset the overall decline.

Government issuances reached $36.6 billion in 1H-2025 as against $76.9 billion in 1H-2024 while corporate issuances stood at $63.7 billion this year vs. $51.9 billion during the first half of last year. Full year issuances during 2024 stood at a record high level of $195.4 billion.

In terms of type of issuances, sukuk issuances witnessed a sharp decline during 1H-2025 whereas bond issuance remained flat y-o-y.

Aggregate GCC bond issues stood at $60.9 billion this year as against $60.2 billion during 1H-2024 whereas sukuk issuances declined by almost a third to reach $39.4 billion this year as compared to issuances of $68.6 billion during the first six months of last year.

At the country level, there was a broad-based y-o-y decline in issuances during the year, barring marginal growth in issuances from UAE and Bahrain. Aggregate issuances from the UAE stood at $32.9 billion in 1H-2025 compared with $31.7 billion in 1H-2024, registering a gain of 3.8%.

On the other hand, issuances from Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar witnessed double digit declines. Total issuances from Saudi Arabia stood at $50.2 billion, accounting for half of the issuances in the GCC, but declined by almost a third from $72.4 billion in issuances in 1H-2024.

Issuances from Qatar and Oman almost halved to $8.7 billion and $1.1 billion during 1H-2025. The structure of maturities saw perpetual instruments seeing growth in 2024 after seeing a steep decline in 2023.

Global Debt Issuances

Global debt market issuances reached a record level during Q1-2025 and H1-2025 with a total of $6.4 trillion in issuances during 1H-2025, according to data from LSEG.

Issuances in Q2-2025 declined by 8% q-o-q but the record high issuances during the first quarter overshadowed this decline in YTD numbers. The growth in issuances were led by higher investment grade instruments while issuance of high yield instruments remained flat y-o-y.

The government issuers and financials maintained their share of issuances during 1H-2025 accounting for three fourth of total issuances.

Corporate issuers in emerging markets were leading with 26% increase in issuances during 1H-2025 with issuers from India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and UAE accounting for 52% of total emerging markets activity. Issuances of green bonds reached a three-year low level and declined by 2% to reach $267.7 billion during 1H-2025.

The volume of issuances also declined to two-year low levels. Yields on the US sovereign bonds remained volatile and the yield on 10-year bonds largely trended downwards since its peak during the third week of May-2025 at 4.6% to now trade at 4.3%.

There were gains during the first week of July-2025, the biggest gains in five weeks, after a surprisingly strong jobs report and the signing of the tax bill by the US President Donald Trump that would add close to $3.4 trillion to deficits over the next decade.