Suez Canal revenues declined by 25% during the last fiscal year ending last June, according to data from the Central Bank of Egypt.
The Central Bank of Egypt report revealed – Tuesday – that the channel’s revenues amounted to 6.6 billion dollars, down from 8.8 billion dollars in the previous fiscal year.
The fiscal year in Egypt begins at the beginning of July of each year until the end of June of the following year, according to the budget law.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said the day before yesterday that Egypt lost about $6 billion in revenues from the Suez Canal in the first eight months of this year, due to geopolitical tensions in the region.
Al-Sisi added at the graduation ceremony of a class from the Police Academy, “The Suez Canal lost 50-60% of its revenues… that is, more than $6 billion, due to tensions in the region during the past eight months.”
Red Sea targets
In “solidarity with Gaza”, which has been facing a devastating Israeli war since October 7, 2023, the Houthis have targeted, with missiles and drones, Israeli cargo ships or those linked to them in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
With Washington and London intervening through a coalition that launched strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, and tensions took an escalating turn last January, the Houthi group announced that it now considered all American and British ships among its military targets.
Recently, the group said it would expand the strikes to “include enemy-linked ships passing through the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope route.”
The Suez Canal is considered one of the most important canals and straits around the world. It is the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, and is considered one of the main sources of hard currency for Egypt.
In a broader context, the Egyptian Central Bank said:
- The deficit in the current account balance widened to $20.8 billion in the 2023-2024 fiscal year from $4.7 billion in the previous fiscal year.
- Foreign direct investment in Egypt recorded a net inflow of $46.1 billion from $10 billion the previous year.
- Remittances from Egyptians working abroad fell to $21.9 billion from $22.1 billion.
- Tourism revenues rose to $14.4 billion from $13.6 billion the previous year.
