SHANGHAI registered an inflation rate of 2.2 percent in April while its economy strengthened, showing resilience while China's overall economic performance fell short of expectation.

Shanghai's Consumer Price Index, the main gauge of inflation, rose 2.2 percent in both April and March, the Shanghai Statistics Bureau said today. It compared with China's average of 2.4 percent last month.

Industrial production expanded 1 percent from a year earlier in April to 258.5 billion yuan (US$41.7 billion), reversing a loss of 1.9 percent in March.

Fixed-asset investment jumped 13 percent year on year to 138.3 billion yuan in the first four months, up from a pace of 10.3 percent in the first quarter.

"Shanghai's inflation remains tamed and the city's economic recovery is more solid than elsewhere in the country," said Li Maoyu, an analyst at Changjiang Securities Co. "Although Shanghai's growth pace is slower than many other cities, it leads in growth quality and efficiency of industrial restructuring."

The city's gross domestic product expanded 7.8 percent on an annual basis in the first quarter, higher than last year's 7.5 percent increase and the national average of 7.7 percent.

Although the rate put Shanghai among domestic cities with slowest GDP growth, Shanghai officials said it was a result of active industrial upgrading for longer-term growth.

With only 0.06 percent of China's land, 1.8 percent of its population and 1.7 percent of its investment, Shanghai contributes more than 4 percent of China's GDP.

Shanghai set an economic growth target of 7.5 percent this year as it tries to accelerate industrial restructuring, increase people's income, and reduce pollution, Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong said earlier, stressing a shift to "growth quality."