A decrease in ship traffic passing through Egypt’s Suez Canal brought down canal revenues in January to $151.4 million, which is 6.3 percent less than revenues earned in the corresponding month the previous year, according to recently released official statistics.
Egyptian authorities recorded $161.6 million in revenues for January 2001, when 1,158 vessels traveled through the canal, 85 more ships than in January this year. The ships transported 38.3 million tons of goods in January 2001, compared to 35.8 million tons of cargo this year.
Canal Authority officials asserted the decline in traffic across the Suez Canal was linked to the global slowdown following the terror attacks in the United States on September 11. The canal is one of the Egypt’s four major sources of hard currency income, along with oil, tourism and income remitted from abroad by Egyptian laborers overseas. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
