The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province now ranks higher than three other cities of a similar size in all of China’s Northeast in economic growth in the first quarter, according to local authorities, explaining that it is ahead of Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, and Shenyang and Dalian in nearby Liaoning province.

The city’s GDP grew 6.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2016, reaching 99.7-billion yuan ($15.31 billion), or 1-percentage point higher than the 5.6 percent of a year ago, and reaching 16.2-percent of this year’s goal.

Its Q1 growth rate was 0.7 percentage point higher than that of 2015, and its fixed-assets investment climbed 10.2 percent, to 6.11 bilion yuan in the Jan-March period. At the same time, its retail sales (consumer goods) reached 81.53 billion yuan, for an increase of 10 percent year-on-year, and 3-percentage points higher than for the same 2015 Period.