Tibetan economy surges in Q1

LHASA - Tibet's economic growth jumped 12.2 percent year on year in the first quarter, up 0.8 percentage point from the same period last year, the autonomous region's statistics bureau said Wednesday.

Tibet's gross domestic product totaled 15.2 billion yuan (2.46 billion U.S. dollars), with consumption contributing to 42.6 percent of the regional economy.

The autonomous region's governments received 3.1 billion yuan in taxes in the period, up 73.7 percent year on year.

One-third of the railway project linking Lhasa and Shigatse has been completed, according to the statistics bureau.

In the first three months, 609 new private businesses opened in Tibet.

Tibetans' living standards have continued to improve, as residents in Tibet saw their earnings expand by about 15 percent in the first quarter.

On average, urban residents earned 4,778 yuan in the first three months of the year, while farmers and herdsmen received 855 yuan in cash in the same period.