TIMOR-LESTE BUSINESS ACTIVITY SURVEY 2025
We are very proudly to announce that this is the 14 edition of Business Activity Survey 2025 calendar
year publication released by the National Institute of Statistic Timor-Leste.
The BAS 2025 comprises a sample of 3,350 out of 6,947 businesses of the kind considered in this study
These non-petroleum producing businesses are spread out across the country and mainly located in the
major towns of each Municipalities. The BAS includes all public and private financial enterprises (banks
and insurance companies) as well as all public and private non-financial businesses, with a few major
exceptions: general government agencies (administration, health, education etc.), agricultural production
and other informal economic activities conducted by households. The Not-for-profit institutions (NGOs,
charities, churches etc.) were surveyed only if they earned more than 50 percent of their income in 2025
from trading activities. Estimates of the economic contribution of subsistence farming and other informal
economic activities can be made based on data previously collected in household surveys.
The BAS is a vital source of information for the development and monitoring of economic policies. The
data will help the Government identify and address policy issues concerning the performance of the
Timorese business environment as a whole, or related to the progress of specific sectors of the
economy. The survey also gives the Government and other stakeholders, including the business sector
itself, an idea of employment numbers and the size and composition of the revenues, expenses and
profits of enterprises acting in different parts of the economy. Moreover, BAS provides key input in the
compilation of the Timor-Leste National Accounts for the non-petroleum producing business sector.
Closer look at the results of BAS 2025 indicates that between 2024 and 2025 industry value added increased
by 7.7 percent in Timor-Leste.
‘Dili’ continued to employ around 81.4 percent of all persons employed and
contributed 80.2 percent to the Industry Value Added (IVA) during 2025.
The BAS was conducted by the National Institute of Statistic Timor-Leste (INETL) with with the support
from Australia Bureau of Statistics for data quality control provided under Australian Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade. We are very grateful for the support of both institutions in assisting us with
the development of official statistics in Timor-Leste.
Finally, we would like to express our immense gratitude to the business community for its support of this
survey and to the specific businesses that provided us with detailed information about their activities.
Elias dos Santos Ferreira
President of INETL,IP
