It appears that Pakistan’s mobile business has prospered despite the country’s severe economic indicators and rising rates of inflation as well as the country’s citizens’ diminishing purchasing power.
According to the annual report from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), in the last five years, 84.4 million mobile phones were created by domestic producers.
25 million of these were smartphone devices, produced between January 2019 and September 2023, according to the research.
The regulatory body further stated that 33 domestic and international businesses opened manufacturing facilities in the area in accordance with the Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Regulations, which were implemented in 2021. These businesses, which operated independently and through joint ventures, were granted a 10-year MDM authorization.
Additionally, the nation has started to export mobile phones made domestically. In December 2022, 120,000 SEEGO brand smartphones bearing the logo “Manufactured in Pakistan” were shipped to the African market.
The PTA’s introduction of the Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) has leveled the playing field for international investments in Pakistan’s mobile device manufacturing sector.
DIRBS has not only helped to boost domestic production but has also provided the government with income, collecting Rs48.8 billion in customs charges in the individual category between January 15, 2019, and October 25, 2023. This source of income was unexplored prior to the introduction of DIRBS.
PTA has blocked 758,113 International Mobile Equipment Identities (IMEIs) that were reported as stolen by using this method.
35.5 million non-compliant IMEIs, including 7.3 million duplicate or cloned IMEI numbers, have also been found and blocked by DIRBS.
The disclosure is important since the nation is experiencing a severe economic crisis that is causing the native currency to weaken, foreign exchange reserves to run out, and inflation to skyrocket.
Additionally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its earlier estimate of 2.5% for Pakistan’s GDP growth rate during the current fiscal year to 2%.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), inflation in Pakistan decreased for the first time in three months in January 2024, coming down to 28.34% year over year.
The News reports that inflation decreased by 1.32% from 29.66% in the prior month. On a monthly basis, though, it represented a 1.8% rise over the prior month.
Even with this increase, Pakistan’s inflation rate is still in the double digits and is below the top of 38% that was noted in May 2023. The consumer price index (CPI) was 26.9% in October 2023 and 29.2% in November 2023.
