Egypt's revenues from the Suez Canal increased by 0.7% to $439.8m in May, compared to the $436.8m revenue of May 2016, according to official figures released on Tuesday by the cabinet. In the first five months of 2017, revenues declined 0.4% to $2.063bn, versus $2.071bn in the same period last year. Suez Canal revenues reached $427.9m in April and $425.1m last March. The canal is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia, and is one of the Egyptian government's main sources of foreign currency. Egypt has been struggling to revive its economy since the 2011 uprising, which scared away tourists and foreign investors, the country's other main sources of hard currency. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi inaugurated an $8bn expansion of the Suez Canal in August 2015 that aimed to double daily traffic and increase annual revenue to more than $13bn by 2023. But monthly revenues have shown either declines or slow growth levels since the inauguration on weaker global trade. Suez Canal revenues have amounted to $5.005bn in 2016, marking 3.2% less than 2015 total revenues, during which revenues amounted to $5.175bn. In June, the Suez Canal Authority announced discount offers at rates ranging between 45-65% for container ships sailing from ports on the East Coast of the United States on their way to ports in South and Southeast Asia. Although the Suez Canal is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia, traffic through the waterway linking the Mediterranean and Red Sea has been hit by a slowdown in global trade and oil prices.
