CAIRO, Nov 21 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt's Suez Canal revenues were down 7 percent in October compared to the same month last year, data on the state's information websites showed on Monday.

The revenues edged up to $418.1 million from $416.6 million in September.

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) forecast a jump in revenue this year as Tamer Hammad, head of the technical support unit in the authority’s presidency department said last month that the canal is expected to generate revenue of $5.7 billion in 2016, marking around 10 per cent increase from the $5.175 billion achieved last year.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated an $8 billion expansion of the Suez Canal in August 2015 that aimed to double daily traffic and increase annual revenue to more than $13 billion by 2023. 

The canal is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia and is one of the country's main sources of foreign currency. 

Egypt's net foreign reserves stood at $19.592 billion at the end of September. 

The country had roughly $36 billion in reserves before 2011, and has been struggling to revive its economy since a 2011 uprising scared away tourists and foreign investors, other main sources of hard currency.