Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released the data of the statistical analyses of trade and manufacturing of Mobile phones and accessories in the country. According to the data released, an overall negative growth of 68.29 percent was observed in the imports of mobile phones on YoY basis. Pakistan imported 447.855 million dollars worth mobile phones in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. The data for imports for the same period last year stood at 1.412 billion dollars.
On a MoM basis the mobile phone imports shows a negative growth of 36.39 percent and stands at 33 million dollars when compared to the 51.9 million dollars last month. Moreover, the imports showed a negative growth of 76.73 percent in February 2023 when compared to the same month last year.
The total imports related to telecommunication showed a negative growth of 62.08 percent on a YoY basis comparing the same period in the previous fiscal year and stood at 708.798 million dollars as compared to 1.86 billion dollars last year. Meanwhile, a negative growth of 70.2 percent was observed in the telecom imports when compared to the same month of February last year.
Other apparatus imports showed a negative growth of 42.9 percent on an YoY basis and a negative growth of 57.95 percent was observed when compared with the month of February last year. On MoM basis, 20.13 percent growth was observed in the other apparatus imports.
The local mobile phone manufacturers have been able to assemble a total of 0.87 million handsets out of which, 0.3 million are smartphones. The local manufacture of handsets in 2022 stood at 21.94 million phones as compared to 24.66 million phones in 2021, which counts for a decline. However, according to the PTA data, 57 percent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 43 percent are 2G on the Pakistan network.
