What is the value of trade among the mostly Muslim-majority 57 OIC countries?

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) reiterated this week its aim of consolidating intra-OIC cooperation in trade, investment and tourism to achieve 25 percent trade among member states by 2025, OIC said in a media statement yesterday.

According to OIC secretary general Yousef A Al-Othaimeen, the organisation is in the process of implementing a "string of measures", without giving any details. 

Intra-OIC trade was $694 billion in 2015, equivalent to 20.33 percent of the 57 member states' overall trade, according to most recent data from the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC).

This represents a 1 percent nudge up in intra-OIC trade share from 2014 but a 13.47 percent drop in the actual value of trade, according to Salaam Gateway calculations.

COMCEC attributes this drop to a 17.3 percent fall in exports between 2014 and 2015 because of lower commodity prices on the international market. Top OIC exporters in 2015 were the United Arab Emirates that exported $218.4 billion, Saudi Arabia $208.6 billion and Malaysia $200.2 billion.

The top intra-OIC trade countries in 2015 were UAE ($110.8 billion, or 16 percent of intra-OIC trade), Saudi Arabia ($68.6 billion, or 9.9 percent of intra-OIC trade) and Turkey ($65.2 billion, or 9.4 percent of intra-OIC trade). 

By regions, the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) accounted for 36 percent of intra-OIC trade, followed by Asia's 29 percent, the Middle East's 24 percent, and Sub-Saharan Africa's 6 percent.

The main products traded between OIC member countries are miscellaneous manufactured goods that made up 29 percent of the bloc's trade in 2015, followed by mineral fuels (23 percent), food products (22 percent), machinery and transport equipment (11 percent), chemicals (10 percent) and non-edible raw materials (5 percent), according to COMCEC. 

Data source:

Data used is from COMCEC and can be retrieved from HERE. 

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