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Egypt's Suez Canal Annual Revenue Drops to $7.2 Bln

FILED - 17 November 2019, Egypt, Ismailia: A container ship sails through the Suez Canal. Photo: Gehad Hamdy/dpa
FILED - 17 November 2019, Egypt, Ismailia: A container ship sails through the Suez Canal. Photo: Gehad Hamdy/dpa
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Egypt's Suez Canal Annual Revenue Drops to $7.2 Bln

FILED - 17 November 2019, Egypt, Ismailia: A container ship sails through the Suez Canal. Photo: Gehad Hamdy/dpa
FILED - 17 November 2019, Egypt, Ismailia: A container ship sails through the Suez Canal. Photo: Gehad Hamdy/dpa

Egypt's Suez Canal registered revenue of $7.2 billion in its 2023/2024 fiscal year, compared with $9.4 billion in the 2022/2023 year, canal authority head Osama Rabie said in a statement on Thursday.

Since November, Houthi attacks have exacted an economic toll on global trade by forcing ship owners to route vessels away from the Suez Canal shortcut and toward the longer, more expensive route around Africa.

Rabie said the number of ships using the canal fell to 20,148 in 2023-24 from 25,911 the year before.
The Suez Canal is a key source of foreign currency for Egypt, and authorities have been trying to boost its revenues in recent years, including via an expansion in 2015. 
 

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China Expands Visa-free Entry to More Countries in Bid to Boost Economy

Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
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China Expands Visa-free Entry to More Countries in Bid to Boost Economy

Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

China announced Friday that it would expand visa-free entry to citizens of nine more countries as it seeks to boost tourism and business travel to help revive a sluggish economy.
Starting Nov. 30, travelers from Bulgaria, Romania, Malta, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Estonia, Latvia and Japan will be able to enter China for up to 30 days without a visa, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.
That will bring to 38 the number of countries that have been granted visa-free access since last year. Only three countries had visa-free access previously, and theirs had been eliminated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The permitted length of stay for visa-free entry is being increased from the previous 15 days, Lin said, and people participating in exchanges will be eligible for the first time. China has been pushing people-to-people exchange between students, academics and others to try to improve its sometimes strained relations with other countries, The Associated Press reported.
China strictly restricted entry during the pandemic and ended its restrictions much later than most other countries. It restored the previous visa-free access for citizens of Brunei and Singapore in July 2023, and then expanded visa-free entry to six more countries — France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia — on Dec. 1 of last year.
The program has since been expanded in tranches. Some countries have announced visa-free entry for Chinese citizens, notably Thailand, which wants to bring back Chinese tourists.
For the three months from July through September this year, China recorded 8.2 million entries by foreigners, of which 4.9 million were visa-free, the official Xinhua News Agency said, quoting a Foreign Ministry consular official.