Egypt earned nearly $8 billion from the Suez Canal in 2022, an increase of 25 per cent from the previous year, the head of the international waterway said on Monday.
A presidential statement quoted Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, as saying the increase in revenue was a primarily because of the waterway's expansion in 2014-15.
The statement followed a meeting between Mr Rabie, a retired navy admiral, and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in Cairo earlier on Monday.
Mr Rabie also told the President that the number of vessels that transited the Suez Canal in 2022 reached 23,583, compared to 20,694 in 2021 and 18,830 in 2020.
The Suez Canal, which links the Red and Mediterranean seas, sees about 10 per cent of global trade. Its revenue is a main source of foreign currency for Egypt, along with remittances of Egyptian expatriates and tourism.
Its increased revenue should be welcome news at a time when Egypt is suffering a foreign currency crunch that forced the government to impose restrictions on imports for months, before relaxing them last week.
