In the first four months of the fiscal year 2024-25, that is, October, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $420.799 million 10.46% decrease from the same period last year.
Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $420.799 million in the first four months (July-October) of the ongoing FY 2024-25, showing a fall of 10.46% compared with $469.969 million during the last fiscal year. Mobile phone imports were $1.898 billion in FY 2023-24, which was far greater than $570.071 million in FY 2022-23. During the current year’s first four months, imports worth Rs 117.017 billion have been recorded, down 13.62% from Rs 135.468 billion for the same time last year.
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Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year Trends
Cumulatively for four months, October 2024 brought in imported mobile phones to the value of $174.338 million, indicating a 69.89% increase on MoM compared to last year’s value of $102.618 million. Year-on-year increase is by 5.06% compared to imports of $165.941 million in the same month last year. Telecom imports for July-October 2024 amounted to a $609.520 million increase of 0.44% above the previous year’s $606.833 million.
There was growth of 53.92% overall month-on-month from total imports of $152.905 million in September 2024 to $235.349 million in October 2024. Overall, year-on-year, imports of the full telecommunications market increased by 13.27%, compared to $207.786 million in October 2023.
Local Manufacturing and Market Dynamics
Local manufacturing and assembling plants produced 22.59 million mobile handsets in the first nine months (January to September) of 2024, while a mere 1.17 million were imported commercially. For example, in September, the locally manufactured mobile sets were 2.15 million and imported 0.07 million. Of the whole local production, 8.73 million were 2G handsets, and the remaining were smartphones, sized at 13.86 million. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), 64% of the mobile devices on the network are smartphones, while the remaining 36% are considered 2G devices.
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Conclusion: The mobile importation trends of Pakistan show significant development on a monthly basis, although the last four months of FY 2024-25 will be viewed with an overall decline. Local manufacturing remains an important front in the push towards sufficiency for market needs.