Monitoring Desk
CAIRO: Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority said on Wednesday that an all-time annual revenue record, earning more than $8 billion in transit fees in 2022.
The authority said that the income from the key waterway is around 25 % higher than the $6.3 billion obtained in 2021, after a series of toll increases to assist the African country’s siphoned foreign reserves.
Egypt’s Suez Canal
The Suez Canal is a source of foreign currency for Cairo, with investors pulling billions out of the import-dependent economy during the present crisis triggered by Russia’s assault on Ukraine in 2022.
The annual inflation rate hit 21.9 % in December and Egypt’s currency has lost about half its value in less than a year in consecutive devaluations demanded as part of a $3-billion debt agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Suez Canal officials said an average of 68 ships traversed the key waterway daily in 2022, carrying 1.41 billion tons of cargo, which it also labeled as a “record high.”
Connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, Suez Canal accounts for roughly 10 % of global maritime trade, and the majority of oil transported via sea. Tolls were increased three times in 2022 for ships traversing the waterway.
