On October 24, a press conference was held in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, where officials revealed that the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the first three quarters reached 178.57 billion yuan (approximately 25 billion USD), marking a year-on-year increase of 6.2% at comparable prices. This growth rate secures Tibet’s position as the leader in economic expansion among all Chinese provinces.

Wang Ping, the Deputy Director of the Tibet Autonomous Region Statistics Bureau, noted that the economic performance in Tibet during the first three quarters has been stable and positive, with key economic indicators continuing to show favorable growth trends. Among these, fixed asset investment, industrial added value above a designated size, total retail sales of consumer goods, general public budget revenue, per capita disposable income for all residents, and per capita disposable income for urban residents all recorded the highest growth rates in the country. Additionally, rural residents’ per capita disposable income and general public budget expenditure growth ranked second nationally, while overall resident prices remained stable.

The press conference also highlighted the ongoing recovery of Tibet’s consumer market. In the first three quarters, total retail sales of consumer goods reached 67.11 billion yuan, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 6.2%, which is a 2.4 percentage point improvement from the first half of the year and surpasses the national average by 2.9 percentage points. Furthermore, fixed asset investment rose by 20.6% year-on-year, showing a slight improvement of 0.5 percentage points since January-August and exceeding the national average by 17.2 percentage points.

Notably, the per capita disposable income for all residents in Tibet was 21,777 yuan, an 8.1% increase compared to the previous year, which is 2.9 percentage points higher than the national average. Per capita disposable income for urban residents reached 42,766 yuan, growing by 6.5%, which is 2 percentage points above the national average, while rural residents saw their per capita disposable income rise to 13,547 yuan, an increase of 8.2%, exceeding the national average by 1.6 percentage points.

Li Lei, Director of the Comprehensive Division of the National Bureau of Statistics Tibet Investigation Team, stated that the income disparity between urban and rural residents (with rural income as the baseline) has decreased from 3.21 in the same period last year to 3.16, indicating a continued narrowing of the urban-rural income gap. Moreover, the growth rates of per capita disposable income for both urban and rural residents surpassed the GDP growth rate, signifying an ongoing improvement in the living standards of the populace.