Maritime traffic through the Red Sea shipping route has fallen by 22 per cent in a month due to attacks on international vessels by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, AFP quotes EU’s trade commissioner as saying.

“That decrease should be bigger now that shipping companies are rerouting their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope,” Valdis Dombrovskis told journalists.

“The broader economic impact, impact on consumer prices and the EU economy in general, will depend very much on the length of this crisis,” Dombrovskis said.