ISLAMABAD: The country imported mobile phones worth $ 462.701 million during the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year 2022-23, registering a negative growth of 71.01 percent when compared to $ 1.596 billion during the same period of last year.

Pakistan’s mobile phone imports declined by 55.09 percent on a month-on-month (MoM) basis in March 2023 and stood at $ 14.846 million compared to imports of $ 33.054 million in February 2023, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Mobile phone imports registered 91.93 percent negative growth on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in March 2023 when compared to $ 183.894 million in March 2022.

The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $ 744.910 million during July-March 2023 and registered 65.14 percent negative growth compared to $ 2.137 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.

On a YoY basis, the overall telecom imports registered a negative growth of 86.51 percent and stood at $ 36.112 million in March 2023 compared to $ 267.705 million in March 2022. On a MoM basis, the overall telecom imports registered 44.22 percent negative growth in March 2023 compared to $ 64.741 million during February 2023.

Other apparatus imports stood at $ 282.210 million in July-March fiscal year 2023 and registered 47.81 percent negative growth compared to $ 540.778 million during the same period of the last fiscal year.

On a year-on-year basis, other apparatus imports stood at $ 21.266 million in March 2023 and registered 74.63 percent negative growth compared to $ 83.811 million in March 2022 and registered 32.89 percent growth on MoM basis compared to $ 31.687 million in February 2023.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023