The Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS) reports that the island region of Pulau Sulawesi recorded the highest year-on-year economic growth among Indonesia’s major regions in the third quarter of 2025, reaching 5.84%. This figure surpassed the national average of 5.04% and the growth recorded in the Pulau Jawa region (5.17%). The main sectors driving Sulawesi’s growth included manufacturing, agriculture, and trade. Within Sulawesi, the largest contribution came from Sulawesi Selatan at 2.23%, followed by Sulawesi Tengah (1.85%), Sulawesi Tenggara (0.70%), Sulawesi Utara (0.63%, Sulawesi Barat (0.23%), and Gorontalo (0.20%).
The strong economic performance in Sulawesi signals a shift in growth dynamics across Indonesia’s regions. While Java remains the dominant contributor to national GDP (56.68 percent of the total in Q3 2025), Sulawesi’s above-average growth reflects the increasing economic importance of non-Java regions and the broader process of economic diversification. Other regions such as Sumatra (4.90 percent), Bali-Nusa Tenggara (4.71 percent), Kalimantan (4.70 percent), and Maluku-Papua (2.68 percent) also showed positive growth, but at lower rates. The data imply that targeted development in sectors like manufacturing, trade, and agriculture in regions outside Java can contribute meaningfully to national growth and reduce regional imbalances.
