Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.411 billion during the first eight months of 2021-22 compared to $1.311 billion during the same period last year.
As per the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, mobile imports registered a growth of 7.63 percent in the said period despite the increase in local manufacturing.
The overall telecom imports into the country during the period under review (July-February) 2021-22 increased by 15.33 percent by going up from $1.619 billion in July-February 2020-21 to $1.868 billion in July-February 2021-22.
On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, imports of mobile phones into Pakistan decreased by 21.45 percent during February 2022 and remained $141.207 million compared to $179.765 million imported in January 2022, as per the PBS data.
On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the imports decreased by 19.69 percent against $175.821 million in February 2021.
The overall telecom imports into the country decreased by 5.48 percent during February 2022 and remained $216.171 million compared to imports of $228.712 million in January 2022 on an MoM basis. On a YoY basis, the overall telecom imports declined by 8.89 percent compared to $237.257 million in February 2021.
Other apparatus imports during July-February 2021-22 increased by 48.09 percent and remained $456.568 million against $308.304 million in July-February 2020-21.
Other apparatus imports registered 53.15 percent growth on an MoM basis and remained $74.964 million in February 2022 against $48.947 million in January 2022 and registered 22.02 percent growth compared to $61.434 million in February 2022.
The local manufacturing plants have manufactured/assembled 1.53 million mobile phones handsets compared to 0.14 million commercially imported in January 2022, as per the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The manufactured/assembled mobile phone handsets by local manufacturing plants during the calendar year 2021 stood at 24.66 million compared to 13.05 million in 2020, indicating an 88 percent increase.
Also, commercial imports of mobile phone handsets stood at 10.26 million in 2021 compared to 24.51 million in 2020.
