plate 328 · 2025 data

Sabah and Sarawak's share of Malaysia's economy keeps shrinking

Share of real GDP summed over Malaysia's states and federal territories, constant 2015 prices, 2015 vs 2025 (2025 advance estimate).

Money rewired
  1. 1. Central banks now hold more gold than Treasuries or euros
  2. 2. China now pays the world mostly in yuan
  3. 3. Migrants now send home four times all foreign aid
  4. 4. Tether now holds more US Treasuries than the UAE
  5. 5. Developing countries' interest bill has nearly tripled since 2010
  6. 6. Poles edge past the Japanese in income per person
  7. 7. In dollars, Nigeria's economy has more than halved since 2014
  8. 8. Argentina's monthly inflation fell from 25.5% to 1.9%
  9. 9. Guyana now produces more per person than America
  10. 10. Ukraine received four times the aid of any other country
  11. 11. Singapore now draws twice as much foreign investment as China
  12. 12. 22 governments now owe more than a year's national output
  13. 13. Money sent home to Guatemala nearly quadrupled in ten years
  14. 14. In purchasing power, Russia's economy is now bigger than Japan's
  15. 15. Colombians abroad now send home more than foreigners invest
  16. 16. 72 countries now pay China more than it lends them
  17. 17. Pakistan rose to first place in Chinese energy finance
  18. 18. Money sent home now tops half of Tajikistan's economy
  19. 19. Pakistan passed India in tech's share of services exports
  20. 20. Mongolia leapt from 2% to 58% paying utilities by phone
  21. 21. Smaller currencies' share of world reserves has more than doubled
  22. 22. Phone savers now outnumber bank savers in 32 countries
  23. 23. Uzbekistan now receives more than twice Ukraine's remittances
  24. 24. Fewer countries owe China more than the World Bank
  25. 25. Poorer countries now owe Saudi Arabia more than America
  26. 26. Cambodia's bank lending grew from 8% to 121% of GDP
  27. 27. Egypt tripled its ATMs per adult in ten years
  28. 28. Bank branches are past their peak in most countries
  29. 29. Guinea rose from 17th to second for investment in Africa
  30. 30. Navoi doubled its share of Uzbekistan's economy in ten years
  31. 31. Turkmenistan has paid back almost all it owed China
  32. 32. Foreign debt payments now top foreign investment in 87 countries
  33. 33. Gulf governments now owe 13% of international government bonds
  34. 34. Sabah and Sarawak's share of Malaysia's economy keeps shrinking
  35. 35. Venezuela flipped from sending money abroad to receiving it
17.4% → 14.3%

Sabah and Sarawak's share of the states' combined real GDP, 2015 to 2025. It fell every single year.

+20% and +26%

Real growth of Sabah and Sarawak over ten years, two of the three slowest of 15 states (Sabah slowest). Selangor grew 71%, all states together 50%.

23.9% → 27.2%

Selangor's share. Malaysia's growth is gathering on the west coast of the peninsula, around Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor.

Source: Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), GDP by state, constant 2015 prices, 2025
the numbers & method
Sabah and Sarawak's share of Malaysia's economy keeps shrinking. Source: Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), GDP by state, constant 2015 prices, 2025.
2015 (%)2025 (%)
Selangor23.927.2
Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya16.116.5
Sabah and Sarawak17.414.3
Johor9.810.1
Pulau Pinang6.97.7
Perak5.65.4

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

Department of Statistics Malaysia, GDP by state and kind of economic activity, annual, constant 2015 prices, RM million (OpenDOSM data catalogue gdp_state_real_supply), read from the OpenDOSM API via the progrss vault (§4.11, dosm-malaysia 3 matches/0 mismatches). 2025 is DOSM's advance estimate and may be revised; 2024 shares: Sabah and Sarawak 14.5%, Selangor 26.9%. Shares are progrss calculations: each state's real GDP divided by the sum of all states reported that year (15 states in 2015; W.P. Putrajaya is reported separately from 2023, so the 2023–2025 totals cover 16; the 2025 total includes Putrajaya, about RM 14.4 billion, and growth without it is 49%; DOSM's supra-state component for offshore oil and gas is not a state and is not included). Sum of states: RM 1,125,521 million in 2015, RM 1,693,696 million in 2025. Sabah RM 73,776m to 88,774m (6.55% to 5.24%); Sarawak RM 121,585m to 153,511m (10.80% to 9.06%). Kuala Lumpur is charted together with Putrajaya so the row keeps one boundary: 16.07% in 2015, 16.50% in 2025 (Kuala Lumpur alone 15.65%). No cause is claimed; mining and oil and gas weigh heavily in both Borneo states. The share fell every year: 17.36, 17.14, 17.06, 16.55, 16.14, 15.73, 15.61, 15.14, 14.82, 14.48, 14.31 (2015–2025). Takeaway 3 is an interpretation.

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