the industrialized countries.

3 Conduct studies within Islamic banks to identify the effects of inflation on their assets, to propose suitable measures for safeguarding those assets and for protecting depositors and investors from inflation, and likewise to research and develop accounting standards that address inflation within Islamic financial institutions.

4 Undertake a study on how an expanded use of Islamic financing and investment instruments impacts inflation and what possible implications this may have for the pertinent legal rulings.

5 Examine the feasibility of re-establishing some form of currency linkage to gold as a way of avoiding inflation.

6 Recognizing that expanding production and increasing the utilization of existing productive capacity are among the most important factors in combating inflation over the medium and long term, efforts should be made to raise and improve output in Muslim countries by formulating plans and adopting measures that encourage higher levels of both saving and investment, thereby enabling sustained development.

7 Urge the governments of Muslim countries to balance their public budgets—including all ordinary, development, and autonomous budgets that rely on public revenue—by committing to expenditures and rationalizing them within the Islamic framework. Should the budgets require financing, the lawful solution is to resort to Islamic financing instruments based on partnerships, sales, and leases, and to abstain from usurious borrowing, whether from banks and financial institutions or through the issuance of debt bonds.

8 Observe the Sharīʿah guidelines when employing fiscal policy tools, whether those tools involve changes in public revenues or in public expenditure, and that