Pakistan Mobile Imports Surged By 138% in First Half of FY24

Pakistan Mobile Imports Surged By 138% in First Half of FY24

Web Desk
February 19, 2024

Mobile phone imports in Pakistan increased by 138.08% from $414.800 million in the previous year.
In January 2024, mobile phone imports in Pakistan increased by 10.70% MoM, reaching $194.928 million.
Local manufacturing produced 21.28 million mobile handsets in 2023, with 13 million being 2G phones.

During the first seven months (July–January) of the current fiscal year 2023–24, Pakistan imported mobile phones valued at $987.539 million, marking a 138.08% increase compared to $414.800 million during the corresponding period last year.

According to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), mobile phone imports in Pakistan rose by 10.70% on a month-on-month (MoM) basis in January 2024, reaching $194.928 million compared to $176.093 million in December 2023.

Mobile phone imports in January 2024 showed a remarkable 275.15% year-on-year (YoY) growth, compared to $51,960 million in January 2023.

Telecom imports in Pakistan totaled $1.243 billion during July–January 2023–24, marking a substantial 93.06% increase compared to $644.056 million in the previous fiscal year.

Year-on-year (YoY), overall telecom imports surged by 197.07%, reaching $232.709 million in January 2024 compared to $78.336 million in January 2023. Month-on-month (MoM), overall telecom imports saw a 7.60% increase in January 2024, compared to $216.263 million in December 2023.

Local manufacturing or assembling of mobile handsets dropped by approximately four percent in the calendar year 2023, mainly due to import issues related to restrictions on opening letters of credit (LCs) for mobile phone accessories. Nevertheless, official data indicated that commercial imports of mobile handsets rose during this time despite the restrictions.

In the calendar year 2023, local manufacturing plants produced 21.28 million mobile handsets, down from 21.94 million in 2022 and 24.66 million in 2021. Despite this decline, commercial imports rose from 1.53 million in 2022 to 1.58 million in 2023.

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Additionally, out of the 21.28 million mobile phones manufactured or assembled locally, 13 million were 2G phones, while 8.28 million were smartphones.

Furthermore, according to data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), smartphones constitute 59% of mobile devices on the Pakistan network, while 2G devices account for 41%.