ISLAMABAD: The country’s telecommunication sector witnessed decline in imports by 31 percent during the first two months of the current fiscal year 2015-16 as compared to the imports of the same period of last year.
According to the trade data collected by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the overall import of telecommunication products stood at $193.229 million in July-August (2015-16) compared to the imports of $270.219 million in July-August (2014-15), showing negative growth of 30.80 percent.
Among the telecom product, the imports of mobile phone witnessed decrease of 8.49 percent by going down from $115.159 million last year to $105.378 million during the current fiscal year.
The imports of other telecom apparatus also witnessed sharp decline of 46.45 percent in imports during the period under review as the imports receded from $164.060 million to $87.851 million, the data revealed.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the imports of telecom products decreased by 25.26 percent to 114.945 million in August 2015 compared to the imports of $153.802 million during August 2014.
According to the data, the imports of mobile phones decreased by 10 percent and other apparatus by 36.86 percent in August 2015 when compared to the imports of August 2014.
The mobile phone imports in August 2015 were recorded at $60.008 million compared to imports of $66.797 million in August 2014 whereas the imports of other apparatus were recorded at $54.937 million compared to the imports of $87.005 million.
On month-on-month basis, the import of telecom products decreased by 25.26 percent in August when compared to the imports of $78.284 million recorded during July.
As compared to July 2015, the imports of mobile phones decreased by 10 percent whereas the imports of other apparatus by 36.86 percent in August 2015.
It is pertinent to mention here that the overall imports into the country during July-August (2015-16) were recorded at $7.194 billion compared to the imports of $6.931 billion in July-August (2014015) , showing decline on 9.29 percent.
On the other hand, the exports from the country were recorded at $3.432 billion during the period under review compared to the exports of $3.825 billion, showing decline of 10.27 percent.
Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the first two months decreased by 8.38 percent to reach at $3.762 compared to the deficit of $4.106 billion of last year.
