Pakistan’s mobile phone imports drop by 10.46 per cent amid increased local production

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $420.8 million during the first four months of the current fiscal year (July-October 2024), marking a 10.46 per cent decline compared to $470 million in the same period last year (2023-24).

In the previous fiscal year (2023-24), Pakistan’s total mobile phone imports amounted to $1.9 billion, a significant rise from $570 million in 2022-23.

Mobile phones worth Rs117 billion were imported in the first four months of 2024-25, reflecting a 13.62 per cent drop compared to Rs135.5 billion in the same timeframe last year.

There was a sharp increase in mobile phone imports on a month-to-month basis. Imports reached $174.3 million, in October 2024, up 69.9 per cent from $102.6 million in September. Compared to October 2023, this shows growth of 5.06 per cent.

Overall telecom imports

When it comes to overall telecom imports (which include mobile phones), Pakistan saw imports worth $609.5 million between July and October, showing little increase of 0.44 per cent compared to $606.8 million in the same period in 2023.

In October, telecom imports jumped by 53.92 per cent from September, reaching $235.3 million, and showed a year-on-year growth of 13.27 per cent.

Local manufacturing

On the manufacturing front, local plants made 22.59 million mobile phones during first nine months of the calendar year compared to just 1.17 million that were commercially imported. In September 2024 alone, 2.15 million phones were locally manufactured, while only 0.07 million were imported.

Out of the locally manufactured phones, 8.73 million were 2G devices, and 13.86 million were smartphones. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), 64 per cent of mobile devices on Pakistani networks are smartphones, while 36 per cent are 2G devices.

Read next: Oil prices dip after last week’s surge, but remain near two-week highs