CAIRO: Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority announced Wednesday an all-time annual revenue record, earning $8 billion in transit fees in 2022, as the country balks under a worsening economic crisis.

The income from the vital waterway is about 25 percent higher than the $6.3 billion netted in 2021, following a series of toll hikes to help pad Egypt’s siphoned foreign reserves.

The canal is a source of much-needed foreign currency for Egypt, with global investors pulling billions out of the import-dependent economy during the current crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

Annual inflation hit 21.9 percent in December and the local currency has lost around half its value in less than a year in successive devaluations demanded as part of a $3-billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund.