ISLAMABAD: The country imported mobile phones worth $733.425 million in the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year 2024-25, registering a negative growth of 7.46 percent when compared to $792.581 million during the same period of the last fiscal year 2023-24.
In rupee terms, the country imported mobile handsets worth Rs203.919 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year and registered negative growth of 10.24 per cent when compared to Rs277.189 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.
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.
Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 9.29 per cent on a month-on-month (MoM) basis in December 2024 and stood at $163.257 million compared to imports of $149.375 million in November 2024, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
On year-on-year (YoY) basis, mobile phone imports witnessed negative growth of 7.27 per cent when compared to $176.063 million in December 2023.
The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $997.083 million during July-December 2024 and registered negative growth of 1.33 per cent compared to $1.01 billion during July-December 2023.
Overall telecom imports increased by 9.63 per cent on a MoM basis in December 2024 and stood at $202.719 million compared to imports of $184.907 million in November 2024. On a YoY basis, overall telecom imports witnessed negative growth of 6.21 per cent when compared to $216.133 million in December 2023.
The local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 28.43 million mobile handsets during the first 11 months (January-November) of the calendar year 2024 compared to 1.49 million imported commercially.
Official data revealed that the locally manufactured/assembled 28.43 million mobile phone handsets included 11.42 million 2G and 17.01 million smartphones.
Besides, as per the PTA data, 65 per cent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 35 per cent are 2G on the Pakistan network.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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