Mobile phone imports increase 75.88pc to US$979.959mn in 3 quarters

• Pakistan imported mobile phones worth US $979.959 million during July-March (2019-20) as compared to the imports of US $557.188 million during July-March (2018-19)
• During the period under review country’s exports registered about 2.23% growth, whereas imports reduced by 14.42%.
• The exports witnessed an increase of 2.23% and reached to $17.451 billion against the exports of $17.071 billion of the same period of last year.

ISLAMABAD: The import of mobile phones into the country has witnessed an increase of 75.88 percent during the first three quarters of financial year (2019-20) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Pakistan imported mobile phones worth US $979.959 million during July-March (2019-20) as compared to the imports of US $557.188 million during July-March (2018-19), showing growth of 75.88 percent, according to the latest data issued by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

On year-on year basis, the import of mobile phones witnessed growth of 45.20 percent in March 2020, as compared to the imports of the same month of last year.

The mobile imports during March 2020 were recorded at US $114.783 million against the imports of US $79.053 million in March 2019.

On month-on-month basis, the imports of mobile phones also increased by 9.75 percent during March 2020, as compared to the imports of US $104.587 million during February 2020, according to the data.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s trade deficit witnessed significant reduction in first three quarters of current financial year and declined by 26.45% as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

During the period under review country’s exports registered about 2.23% growth, whereas imports reduced by 14.42%.

The exports witnessed an increase of 2.23% and reached to $17.451 billion against the exports of $17.071 billion of the same period of last year.

On the other hand, the country’s imports witnessed significant decrease of 14.42% and went down from $40.679 billion last financial year to $34.814 billion of same period of current financial year.

Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $17.363 billion against the deficit of $23.608 during last year, showing decline of 26.45 percent.