A night view of Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/Ningbo Daily]

Ningbo's economy has gotten off to a good start in the first quarter of this year.

The city's gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 311.13 billion yuan ($47.87 billion) over the three-month period, rising 19.5 percent year-on-year, 1.2 percent higher than the national average, according to preliminary statistics released by the Ningbo municipal bureau of statistics.

The industrial added value of enterprises above designated size in the city reported an increase of 33.1 percent year-on-year.

Stable growth was also seen in its service sector, which accounted for 53.8 percent of the city's GDP over the period, after registering a year-on-year growth of 14 percent.

As of the end of March, Ningbo's balances of deposits and loans in both domestic and foreign currencies amounted to 2.54 trillion yuan and 2.69 trillion yuan, up 15.7 percent and 13.9 percent respectively.

Over this period, the total retail sales of social consumer goods in the city expanded 30.3 percent to 105.06 billion yuan, while its investment in fixed assets also showed a good performance in Q1, registering a yearly increase of 22.8 percent.

In Q1, Ningbo's imports and exports increased 41.2 percent year-on-year to 259.15 billion yuan. Specifically, exports stood at 162.57 billion yuan, accounting for 3.25 percent of the nation’s total.

Its residents also saw a stable increase in their income. The per capita disposable income of Ningbo's urban residents stood at 20,680 yuan, up 14.7 percent year-on-year in real terms after deducting price factors.