Pakistan has seen a significant spike in mobile phone imports, reaching $1.148 billion in the first eight months of the fiscal year 2023-24, marking a remarkable 156.43 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
According to the latest data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), mobile phone imports experienced a slight decline of 17.46 percent month-on-month (MoM) in February 2024, amounting to $160.899 million, compared to $194.928 million in January 2024.
On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, mobile phone imports surged by an impressive 386.78 percent in February 2024, compared to $33.054 million in February 2023.
Overall, telecom imports in the country totaled $1.434 billion during July-February 2023-24, marking a notable 102.44 percent growth compared to the same period last fiscal year. YoY, overall telecom imports soared by 195.81 percent, reaching $191.504 million in February 2024.
Despite these figures, overall telecom imports saw a 17.71 percent negative growth on a MoM basis in February 2024, compared to $232.709 million in January 2024.
Local manufacturing and assembly plants contributed significantly, producing 2.27 million mobile handsets in January 2024, surpassing the 0.24 million imported commercially.
Of the locally manufactured/assembled handsets, 0.72 million were 2G and 1.55 million were smartphones. Additionally, according to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) data, 60 percent of mobile devices in Pakistan are smartphones, while 40 percent are 2G.
However, local manufacturing and assembly of mobile handsets experienced a slight decline of around four percent in the calendar year 2023, attributed to import issues related to the restriction of opening Letters of Credit (LCs) for mobile phone accessories.
