*Egypt may be undergoing difficult economic times but the Suez Canal, one of Cairo’s key foreign currency earners, continues to benefit from trade dislocations caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The resultant western sanctions on the country’s oil exports have seen record volumes of Russian crude head east and bumper volumes of oil products from Gulf countries head to Europe.
*Revenues hit $9.45bn for the Egyptian financial year to 30 June, up a whopping 36% or almost $2.5bn on the previous record of $6.96bn set a year earlier (MEES, 9 June). Whilst Egypt has also paid more for imports of wheat and other foodstuffs following the start of war in Ukraine, and Egyptian officials have blamed the conflict for Egypt’s economic woes, it is far from evident that Egypt has been a net loser from the war in economic terms. After all Egypt also earned a record $8.4bn from LNG exports last year (MEES, 19 May). (CONTINUED - 236 WORDS)
