According to official statistics released by the Suez Canal Authority, the Canal’s earnings in dollars have decreased, for the third month consecutively, in March, media sources reveal.

With a turnover of EGP3.48 billion ($396.4 million) in March 2016, earnings of the Suez Canal fell by 1.2% comparing to the month before where it reached $401.4 million.

However, due to the strong devaluation of Egypt’s currency at mi-March, the previous result is up 12% when estimated in Egyptian pound. Truly, due to low foreign currency, the Egyptian pound has depreciated by about 14% since March 14, 2016, Central bank’s most significant devaluation over the past years.

Suez Canal’s dollar revenues contradict forecast by the Canal’s authority that expected the turnover to increase, after the commissioning of additional water way which allows bi-directional traffic, and works at the main canal to ensure the passing of larger ships.

According to the authority, these works which were conducted in 2015 for about $4 billion should have allowed turnover to double to $13.2 billion in 2023. Yet, these earnings were only at $5.2 billion in 2015, against $5.5 billion the previous year. This was mostly due to oil price slumping and global trade slowing down.

Canal of Suez, Egypt’s economic lung and one of the most used maritime routes worldwide, represents around 14% of global maritime traffic and 8% of maritime trade. The infrastructure contributes to about 20% of Egypt’s budget.