How much did Pakistan spend on mobile phone imports?

Pakistan’s imports of mobile phones for its two-month fiscal year 2024-25 have significantly decreased.

According to the latest figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, mobile phones worth $143.889 million were imported during July-August.

This depicts an increase of 19.82 percent compared to the same period in its previous fiscal year 2023-24, where imports stood at $179.453 million.

Pakistan imported mobile phones valued at $1.898 billion for the whole fiscal year 2023-24 compared to a mere $570.071 million recorded during the fiscal year 2022-23, setting off a notable upward surge for the country’s overall imports notwithstanding that the new fiscal year began on a disappointing note, actually with a decline in imports of mobile phones.

The first two months of FY 2024-25 import of mobile phones stand at Rs 40.069 billion in local currency. This translates to a decline of 22.73% compared to Rs 51.853 billion spent during the same period of the previous year.

Imports of mobile phones on a monthly basis rose to $79.406 million in August 2024 from the previous month’s $64.483 million, 23.14%Yearly basis, import value decreased to $79.406 million in August 2024 compared to $111.339 million in August 2023, which saw a drop by 28.68%

Data About Import of Telecom

Total telecom imports for the combined months of July-August 2024 recorded $221.725 million, reflected as a negative growth of 7.73% from the $240.293 million registered during the same period last year. Telco imports during August 2024 were 16.36% higher than the month of July 2024, with $119.247 million compared with $102.478 million recorded in July 2024. On the other hand, the figure was down 20.34% compared to August 2023, when telco imports stood at $149.704 million.

Local Mobile Manufacturing on the Rise

Though imports in Pakistan had plunged into a free fall, its local mobile manufacturing industry was still going strong. In a period of just seven months between January and July 2024- local manufacturing and assembly units were churning out 18.95m mobile handsets that included 6.85 m 2G phones and 12.1 m smartphones. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, or PTA, 62pc of mobile devices in the country are smartphones and 38pc 2G sets.

Locally, production stood at 1.61 million handsets while the commercially imported handsets stood at 0.16 million in the same period, pointing to more reliance on more local production to supply.