Revenues from the Suez Canal, one of Egypt's main sources of foreign currency, edged up to $418.1 million in October from $416.6 million the previous month, according to figures published on a government website. The Egyptian Information Portal published the October revenues earlier on Monday but did not initially give the September figure.
The Suez Canal is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia. Its $8 billion expansion, inaugurated by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in August 2015, was intended to help revive the ailing economy by doubling daily traffic and increasing annual revenue to more than $13 billion by 2023. That boon has yet to materialise. But an official from the Suez Canal Authority said last month the waterway was expected to generate $5.7 billion in revenues this year.
The figure would be an improvement on the $5.175 billion achieved in 2015, despite slowing global trade and initially sluggish demand following the canal expansion. To draw further foreign currency into the government's depleted coffers, the canal authority has been considering pre-paid systems for fees that would attract large sums of cash. Suez Canal revenues were $449.2 million in October 2015.
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