The Tibet autonomous region's economy grew 11.4 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters thanks to rapid growth in fixed-asset investment and retail sales, local statistics bureau said Saturday.

The gross domestic product amounted to 30.6 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) in the first nine months. The GDP growth rate is 3.7 percentage points higher than the national average rate of 7.7 percent.

During the first nine months, investment in fixed-asset surged 33.7 percent annually to 27.6 billion yuan. Retail sales rose 23.9percent to 11.3 billion yuan and industrial output jumped 12 percent to 2 billion yuan.

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The southwestern autonomous region received 4.8 million domestic and overseas tourists during the period, an increase of 180 percent from the same period last year.