Suez Canal’s revenues drop to $449mn in September

Egypt’s revenues from the Suez Canal dropped to US$448.8 million in September from $462.1 million in August, the Suez Canal Authority said on its website Monday.

The canal is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia and is one of Egypt’s main sources of foreign currency.

On Aug. 6, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated an $8-billion expansion of the canal aiming to double daily traffic by 2023 and increase annual revenues to more than $13 billion by 2023, from just over $5 billion in 2014. It was mostly financed by investment certificates sold to Egyptians.

Credit ratings provider Moody’s expected that with the historical average growth, Suez Canal revenues will register at just below $5.6 billion in 2023. For revenues to reach the projected $13.3 billion, Moody’s said Egypt would need a 10 percent increase in world trade growth.