Mobile Phone Imports Up 12% in December Despite Record Low Reserves

Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $72.291 million in December 2022 compared to imports of $64.520 million in November 2022, registering a 12.04 percent growth despite the country’s dwindling reserves. Mobile imports stood at $362.862 million during the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23), registering a negative growth of 66.73 percent compared to $1.090 billion during the same period of last year, says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Mobile phone imports registered 69.10 percent negative growth on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in December 2022 compared to $233.917 million during the same month of last year. The overall telecom imports into the country stood at $565.896 million during the first half of the current fiscal year 2022-23 and registered 60.24 percent negative growth compared to $1.423 billion during the same period of last fiscal year. On a YoY basis, the overall telecom imports registered a negative growth of 62.43 percent and stood at $110.165 million in December 2022 compared to $293.193 million in December 2021. On a MoM basis, overall telecom imports registered 0.03 percent growth in December 2022 compared to $110.136 million during November 2022. Other apparatus imports stood at $203.035 million in July-December 2022 and registered 38.97 percent negative growth compared to $323.656 million during the same period of the last fiscal year. On a year-on-year basis, other apparatus imports stood at $37.874 million in December 2022 and registered 36.11 percent negative growth compared to $59.276 million in December 2021 and registered 16.97 percent negative growth on a MoM basis compared to $45.616 million in November 2022.