Pakistan Imported Mobile Phones Worth $143.8 Million in First Two Months of FY25

The country imported mobile phones worth $143.889 million in the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year 2024-25, registering a negative growth of 19.82 percent when compared to $179.453 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 term, the country imported mobile handsets of worth Rs40.069 billion during the first two months of the current fiscal year and registered negative growth of 22.73 percent when compared to Rs51.853 billion during the same period of last fiscal year. Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 23.14 percent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis in August 2024 and stood at $79.406 million compared to imports of $64.483 million in July 2024, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Year on Year (YoY) basis, mobile phone imports witnessed negative growth of 28.68 percent when compared to $111.339 million in August 2023. The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $221.725 million during July-August 2024 and registered 7.73 percent negative growth compared to $240.293 million during July-August 2023. Overall telecom imports increased by 16.36 percent on a MoM basis in August 2024 and stood at $119.247 million compared to imports of $102.478 million in July 2024. On a YoY basis, overall telecom imports witnessed negative growth of 20.34 percent when compared to $149.704 million in August 2023. The local manufacturing/ assembling plants manufactured/ assembled 18.95 million mobile handsets during the first seven months (January-July) of the calendar year 2024 compared to one million imported commercially. Official data revealed that the locally manufactured/ assembled 1.61 million mobile handsets in July compared to 0.16 million imported commercially. The locally manufactured/ assembled 18.95 million mobile phone handsets included 6.85 million 2G and 12.1 million smartphones. Besides, as per the PTA data, 62 percent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 38 percent are 2G on the Pakistan network.