26 февраля 2024 — 11:00
In February, the volume of maritime traffic through the Red Sea halved year-on-year amid the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and increased rocket attacks on merchant ships by Yemeni Houthi rebels. This was stated by Julie Kozak, Director of the Communications Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), RIA Novosti writes.
"The volume of traffic passing through the Suez Canal has decreased by 55 percent year on year," she estimated. According to Kozak, the current situation may lead to negative economic consequences and a difficult humanitarian situation.
At the same time, the volume of traffic through the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) increased by almost 75 percent, the IMF representative added. This sea route has become an alternative trade route for many ships seeking to avoid the danger of rocket fire.
Earlier, analysts at the Washington Institute of International Finance (IIF) predicted that the crisis in the Red Sea could lead to a slowdown in global economic growth to 2.8 percent by the end of 2024. Experts considered such a scenario to be basic. With a negative development of events in the Red Sea, the growth rate of the global economy may slow down to 2.4 percent. For comparison, experts estimated the growth of the global economy in 2023 at 3.1 percent.