The political and economic instability seen in Brazil in 2018 hit mobile phone sales badly, according to analyst firm IDC.
Some 46.9 million phones were sold last year, a sales reduction of 6.8 percent in relation to the prior year. However, revenue was up 6 percent at 58.1 billion reais ($14.5 billion).
Smartphones represented 44.4 million items of that total, while 2.5 million were feature phones.
According to IDC Brazil’s analyst Renato Meireles, the volatility of the dollar against the Brazilian real, as well as the presidential elections and the strike of self-employed truck drivers in May 2018 were the key drivers behind the sales slowdown.