Local manufacturing of mobile phones was severely affected in January. According to the news, local manufacturing plants in Pakistan produced 0.87 million mobile phones during January 2023 instead of 0.07 million commercially imported in the same month.
According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) data, the locally assembled mobiles included 0.56 million 2G and 0.3 million smart handsets.
Last year in January 2022, Pakistan assembled nearly 1.53 million devices. In contrast, this year, manufacturing declined by 43%.
As we know, the economic condition of Pakistan is on the very bad side, and every company and sector is badly affected by the inflation and high costs of essential products. Therefore, mobile phone companies have also faced a significant decline.
According to the analysis, Pakistan’s consumer price inflation jumped to 31.5% in February 2023. This is the highest rate since June 1974.
At the same time, the consequences of last year’s devastating floods have increased economic difficulties. The Pakistani government is constantly trying to cope, but the situation worsens daily.
Not only it affected the mobile sector, but costs increased further in all components. The transport sector affected by 50.5% Vs. 39.1% in January—housing and utilities 13.4% Vs. 7.8%, culture, and recreation 48% Vs. 44.1%. The analysis shows that every sector is under the circumstances.
Though, the monthly decline was even more, steeper as the number of mobile handsets has decreased by a massive amount, i.e., over 61%, compared to 2.24 million handsets manufactured in December 2022.
However, it is essential to mention that local manufacturing plants assembled 21.94 million handsets in 2022. In comparison to 2021, which was 24.66 million. The decline is mainly due to import restrictions.
Mobile Imports
During the first seven months of the fiscal year 2022-23, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $414.801 million, a decrease of 67.35% from the $1.270 billion imported during the previous year.
Moreover, data from Pakistan Statistics Bureau (PSB) shows that month-on-month mobile handsets imports registered 28.12% negative growth and were at $51.960 million in January 2023.In comparison to $72.291 million in December 2022.
Previously, when the country’s economic condition was stable in 2022, the mobile device manufacturing policy formulated by EDB aimed to promote local manufacturing of mobile devices in Pakistan. However, the objective was to provide an attractive environment for investors under the “Make in Pakistan” policy of the government.
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