Revenues from Egypt’s Suez Canal reached $423m in December 2010, a rise of 2.5% from the previous month.

The canal’s revenue in November was $412.8m.

Overall annual revenue for 2010 was $4.73bn, an increase of 10.09% from 2009.

A rise in trade traffic and a 30% decline in 2010 in piracy attempts in the Gulf of Aden off of the Somali Coast helped boost revenues on the canal, which is a crucial passageway for ships to and from Europe.

The canal, which accounted for 2.5% of Egypt’s gross domestic product in the fiscal year 2008-09, is a crucial source of foreign currency for the country.