The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province had a year-on-year GDP growth of 6.9 percent, in the first half of this year, or 1-percentage point higher than for the Jan-to-March period, local authorities said at a recent press conference, where they calculated a GDP of 223.74 billion yuan ($36 billion) for the first half.

The city’s economy did well in general although many sectors saw slower growth at the beginning, with the growth of major indices staying reasonable and meeting expectations.

Per capita incomes of urbanites was 14,870 yuan, a rise of 7.6 percent year-on-year, for a growth that was 0.7-percentage-point above the city’s GDP.

At the same time, per capita incomes of rural people grew to 6,547.2 yuan, up 9.7 percent year-on-year.

The city’s fixed asset investment totaled 83.51 billion yuan in the first half, up 7.1 percent from the same 2014 period, with 3.2 billion yuan in agriculture, for a year-on-year increase of 56.6 percent, and 56.65 billion yuan in the service sector, up 12.7 percent. However, investment in manufacturing declined 7.8 percent to 23.66 billion yuan.

The data indicate that the number of employees in the city was 2.97 million in urban areas, including 1.44 million in the non-private sector, or an increase of 109,000 year-on-year, and a major force for stable employment growth.