The Shanghai Statistics Bureau (SSB) has released data that showed Shanghai's economic growth has slowed during the first two months of this year from a year ago.

Based on the SSB data growth in industrial production, fixed-asset investment and trade were in moderation during the January-February period.

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Experts said Shanghai's moderate economic growth at the start of this year was expected considering that the entire country's performance was also moderate, with various industries and sectors reporting multi-year lows.

One analyst said it will be hard for Shanghai to stand alone while the country is faced with economic slowdown. However, the city fared relatively well in the first two months of the year as moderation remained robust.

Based on the January-February statistics released by the SSB, Shanghai's industrial production went up 3.8 percent from last year to reach US$81 billion. The average growth for industrial production last year was 6.6 percent.

Fixed-asset investment also grew 4 percent during the period, but still lower than the average pace of 7.5 percent last year.

The city's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.7 percent in 2013 but the local government has set a lower target this year at 7.5 percent due to the overall economy's slowdown.

Meanwhile, the China Economy Research Institute has released a list that showed Shanghai leading the country's provincial regions with the highest GDP quality in 2013. The GDP quality is different from the actual GDP because the GDP quality measures the happiness of residents with their income.

The ranking lists 31 provincial regions in mainland China based on their per capita GDP. According to the list released by the institute, while Shanghai ranked only 12th in aggregate GDP last year, its residents were happy with their income, making it number one in GDP quality.

The report showed that regions with higher GDP aggregate are not ranked high in terms of GDP quality.

Shanghai is followed by Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hainan and Chongqing in the list.