Pakistan's mobile phone imports surge 200% to $1.462bn in 10MFY24

Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.462 billion during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, marking a 209.07% increase compared to $473.287 million in the same period last fiscal year.

According to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), mobile phone imports in April 2024 rose by 5.44% month-on-month (MoM) to $161.393 million from $153.045 million in March 2024. 

Year-on-year (YoY), imports surged by 1,424.42% compared to $10.587 million in April 2023.

In rupee terms, mobile phone imports totaled Rs414.276 billion, a 279.52% increase from Rs109.158 billion during the first 10 months of the fiscal year.

Overall telecom imports stood at $1.834 billion during July-April 2023-24, showing a 135.44% increase from $77.359 million during the same period last fiscal year. 

In April 2024, telecom imports increased by 515.52% YoY to $211.663 million from $34.388 million in April 2023, and by 12.02% MoM from $188.942 million in March 2024.

In a related development, local manufacturing plants produced 6.1 million mobile handsets in the first two months (January-February) of 2024, compared to 0.3 million imported commercially. 

In February, 3.83 million handsets were manufactured locally versus 0.06 million imported.

Data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) indicates that 60% of mobile devices on the network are smartphones, while 40% are 2G handsets. 

Despite challenges in importing accessories due to restrictions on opening letters of credit (LCs), commercial imports of mobile handsets increased.