Pakistan’s mobile phone imports stood at a whopping Rs. 19 billion in July 2023, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

According to PBS data, the imports in July 2023 were 24 percent higher than imports of Rs. 15.356 billion registered in the previous month i.e. June 2023.

The increase in imports was significantly higher than the imports in the same month of the previous fiscal year (FY24), going up by almost 125 percent compared to imports of Rs. 6.542 billion in July 2022.

In dollar terms, the imports in July 2023 stood at $68.135 million, up 27 percent compared to June 2023 and 75 percent compared to July 2022.

It is pertinent to mention here that last year the government introduced strict import restrictions in order to control the outflow of dollars which resulted in lesser imports.

The import restrictions helped Pakistan narrow its trade deficit by 43.03 percent to $27.547 billion during the fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23) as compared to $48.354 billion during the same period of last year. The imports decreased by 31 percent during the period, going down from $80.136 billion in FY22 to $55.291 billion during FY23.

However, with the central bank removing all removing restrictions towards the end of June, imports have started to increase once again.

Source: Pro Pakistani