Cities with Highest Retail Sales in Early 2026: Surabaya Leads

JAKARTA – The performance of retail sales in several major cities across Indonesia showed varied development in early 2026.

The Retail Sales Survey (SPE) released by Bank Indonesia (BI) recorded that several cities experienced fairly strong year-on-year retail sales growth, whilst several other cities experienced deceleration and even contraction.

This data is reflected in the development of the Real Sales Index (IPR), which depicts retail sales performance across various regions.

Ramdan Denny Prakoso, Executive Director of Bank Indonesia’s Communications Department, stated that retail sales performance in the early part of the year still showed year-on-year growth.

“Retail sales performance in January 2026 is forecast to increase year-on-year,” said Ramdan in an official BI statement, as quoted on Tuesday (10/3/2026).

According to him, this increase is particularly supported by sales growth in the culture and recreation goods category, food, beverages and tobacco, and the clothing subcategory.

This situation is in line with the normalisation of public consumption following the period of National Religious Holidays (HBKN) of Christmas and New Year.

Ramdan explained that the monthly contraction occurred following the high level of public consumption activity during the end-of-year period.

“Retail sales performance in January 2026 is forecast to experience monthly contraction in line with the normalisation of public consumption after the Christmas and New Year national religious holidays,” he said.

Several cities recorded fairly strong retail sales growth in early 2026. One that stood out is Surabaya.

Based on the survey results, retail sales in Surabaya in January 2026 recorded an index of approximately 491.9 with growth of 15.0 per cent year-on-year.

This growth was the highest amongst several cities surveyed by BI.