Egypt’s Suez canal posts record high revenue

Egypt’s revenue from the Suez Canal for the 2017- 2018 financial year rose 11.5 percent to a record high $5.585 billion (4.20 billion pounds), the canal authority said in a statement on its website on Sunday.

Revenue a year earlier was $5.008 billion, it said. The financial year has not yet finished, however.

Egypt’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to the end of June. The canal authority did not explain why it had released figures ahead of the end of the fiscal year.

It announced on Saturday increased revenue in May, and predicted a record yearly figure, attributing this to increased international trade and improvements in the shipping industry.

“As we leave the European Union and stop paying significant annual subscriptions to Brussels, we will have more money to spend on priorities like the NHS,” May said in a post on her Facebook account.