Pakistan Imported Mobile Phones Worth $246 Million in Q1 FY25
Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $246.472 million in the first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal year 2024-25, marking a decrease of 18.93 percent compared to $304.029 million during the same period of the previous fiscal year 2023-24.
The country imported mobile phones worth $1.898 billion during the fiscal year 2023-24, a significant increase compared to $570.071 million during the fiscal year 2022-23.
In rupee terms, the country imported mobile handsets worth Rs68.612 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, showing a negative growth of 22.86 percent compared to Rs88.945 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year.
Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 29.32 percent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis in September 2024, reaching $102.629 million compared to $79.360 million in August 2024, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). On a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, mobile phone imports saw a decline of 17.62 percent when compared to $124.576 million in September 2023.
Overall telecom imports into the country stood at $374.410 million during July-September 2024, registering a 6.17 percent negative growth compared to $399.048 million during July-September 2023.
Overall telecom imports increased by 28.92 percent on a MoM basis in September 2024, standing at $153.144 million compared to $118.787 million in August 2024. On a YoY basis, overall telecom imports witnessed a decline of 3.53 percent when compared to $158.755 million in September 2023.
Local manufacturing and assembling plants produced 20.44 million mobile handsets during the first eight months (January-August) of the calendar year 2024, compared to 1.1 million handsets imported commercially. Official data revealed that 1.49 million mobile handsets were manufactured/assembled in August compared to 0.1 million imported commercially.
The locally manufactured/assembled mobile handsets included 7.71 million 2G devices and 12.73 million smartphones. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), 62 percent of mobile devices on the Pakistan network are smartphones, while 38 percent are 2G.
