CAIRO: The Egyptian official MENA news agency said that the monthly report issued on Monday by the Information and Decision Support Center of the Egyptian Cabinet revealed that Suez Canal revenues during the month of January increased by 15.4 percent to reach $383.6 million compared to January 2009. The volume of deposits in the banking sector (other than the Central Bank) increased and reached $2.86 billion Egyptian Pounds in December 2009, with an increase of 10.7 percent compared to the corresponding month of 2008. It also showed that the net international reserves at the Central Bank of Egypt rose during the month of January by 2.4 percent to reach $34.2 billion compared to the same month the previous year. The report also said that the total liquidity reached in last December was some $4.87 billion pounds, up by 9.5 percent compared to its level in the corresponding month of the year 2008. These figures seem to indicate that the global economic recession appears to be receding. With regard to the electricity sector, the report indicated that the generated electricity during the month of January reached 10.75 billion kilowatts per hour, rising by 3.5 percent compared to its level during the corresponding month of 2009. The total usage of electricity also reached 9.41 billion KW/hour, up by 5.1 percent compared to its level during last year. In the field of land transport, the report pointed to the increase in revenues for passenger railway transportation and train usage by 1.2 percent, as it reached 526.3 million pounds during the period from July 2009 to January 2010, compared to the same period of the previous year. Revenues from the transport of goods via rail also increased by 27.4 percent scoring some 148.8 million pounds compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. The monthly report issued by the Center for Information and Decision Support explained that the deficit in the trade balance slipped by 29.3 percent during last November to reach 1.6 billion pounds compared 2.3 billion pounds during October of the previous year, while it declined by 40.7 percent compared with the same month of the year 2008. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
