ISLAMABAD: The country imported mobile phones worth $570.167 million in the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year 2024-25, registering a negative growth of 7.52 percent when compared to $616,518 million during the same period of the last fiscal year 2023-24.
Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.898 billion during the fiscal year 2023-24, compared to $570.071 million during the fiscal year 2022-23.
In rupee terms, the country imported mobile handsets worth Rs158.514 billion during the first five months of the current fiscal year and registered negative growth of 10.60 percent when compared to Rs177.311 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.
Pakistan’s mobile phone imports decreased by 14.32 percent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis in November 2024 and stood at $149.375 million compared to imports of $74.332 million in October 2024, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
On Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, mobile phone imports witnessed growth of 1.93 percent when compared to $146.549 million in November 2023.
The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $794.363 million during July-November 2024 and registered less than one percent negative growth compared to $794.377 million during July-November 2023.
Overall telecom imports decreased by 21.41 percent on a MoM basis in November 2024 and stood at $184.907 million compared to imports of $235.287 million in October 2024. On a YoY basis, overall telecom imports witnessed negative growth of 1.41 percent when compared to $187.544 million in November 2023.
The local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 22.59 million mobile handsets during the first nine months (January-September) of the calendar year 2024 compared to 1.17 million imported commercially.
Official data revealed that the locally manufactured/assembled 2.15 million mobile handsets in September compared to 0.07 million imported commercially.
The locally manufactured/assembled 22.59 million mobile phone handsets included 8.73 million 2G and 13.86 million smartphones.
Besides, as per the PTA’s data, 64 percent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 36 percent are 2G on the Pakistan network.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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