CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s current account deficit more than quadrupled to $20.8 billion in the 2023/24 fiscal year from $4.7 billion a year earlier, mostly due to an increase in the trade deficit and a fall in Suez Canal transit receipts, the central bank said on Tuesday.
The country’s Suez Canal revenues declined to $6.6 billion from $8.8 billion the previous year, it said in a statement.
The decline came mainly during the second half of the 2023/24 fiscal year with revenues decreasing by 61.7% to just $1.8 billion. Egypt’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.
“Such a decrease is due to the Red Sea maritime traffic disruptions which forced several commercial shipping companies to divert their shipping routes,” the central bank said.
The Iran-backed Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous regions, have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea region in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s net foreign direct investments inflows jumped to $46.1 billion from $10 billion the previous year, remittances from Egyptian workers abroad slipped to $21.9 billion from $22.1 billion and tourism revenues saw a slight increase to $14.4 billion from $13.6 billion a year earlier.
(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah, Tala Ramadan and Enas Alashray; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Christina Fincher)
