ISLAMABAD: Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $644.673 million during the first four months (July-October) of 2021 compared to $557.961 million during the same period of last year, registering a growth of 15.54 percent, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data.
The overall telecom imports into the country during the period under review (July-October) 2021 increased by 22.40 percent by going up from $691.644 million in July-October 2020 to $846.553 million in July-October 2021.
On month-on-month basis, the imports of mobile phones into Pakistan decreased by 28.37 percent during October 2021 and remained $149.713 million when compared to $209.013 million imported in September 2021, the PBS data revealed. On year-on-year basis mobile phones witnessed an increase of 130.08 percent when compared to $65.069 million in October 2020.
On month-on-month basis, the overall telecom imports into the country decreased by 22.95 percent during October 2021 and remained $208.678 million, when compared to the imports of $270.823 million in September 2021.
On year-on-year basis overall telecom imports witnessed 105.82 percent growth when compared to $101.390 million in October 2020. Other apparatus imports during July-October 2021 increased by 51.01 percent and remained $201.880 million compared to $133.683 million in July-October 2020.
Other apparatus imports registered 4.60 percent negative growth on month-on-month basis and remained $58.965 million in October 2021 compared to $61.810 million in September 2021 and registered 62.34 percent growth when compared to $36.321 million in October 2020.
The production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants has surpassed the number of commercial mobile phones imports in the country during January-September 2021 as the local production was recorded at 16.15 million compared to the imported mobile phones of 9.02 million.
However, despite the increase in local production of mobile phones, the import remained on high side and mobile phones worth $644.673 million were imported during the first four months (July-October) of 2021 compared to $557.961 million during the same period of last year, registering a growth of 15.54 percent.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021