Buildings are under construction in in Shenzhen Qianhai free trade zone on November 11, 2018. (Photo: VCG)

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Shenzhen has surpassed its neighbor Hong Kong for the first time, according to the latest statistics the two cities have released.

Hong Kong’s GDP was $HK2.845 trillion ($362.4 billion) last year, with an economic growth rate of 3.0 percent, slower than its 3.8 percent rate in 2017, according to statistics published Wednesday by the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

A few days earlier, the statistics bureau of Shenzhen, a pioneer of China’s reform and opening up, announced that the southern city’s GDP was 2.422 trillion yuan ($362.5 billion) with a growth rate of 7.6 percent.

Shenzhen’s GDP was HK$2.87 trillion if converted based on the 2018 official exchange rate from Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department, according to South China Morning Post

By this measure, Shenzhen surpassed Hong Kong for the first time in GDP, and will lead in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.

When delivering a work report on January 18, Shenzhen Mayor Chen Rugui said that the city’s economic aggregate has already stepped into the top five among Asian cities, following Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore, according to the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

However, Shenzhen still needs to catch up in GDP per capita. According to Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department, the GDP per capita in Hong Kong last year was $HK381,870 ($48,648).

In Shenzhen, if divided by the permanent resident population of 12.52 million, the GDP per capita was only 193,500 yuan ($28,958) last year, 60 percent of Hong Kong’s.

Photo: Screenshot from Statistical Reports of Hong Kong's Gross Domestic Product (Yearly) on censtatd.gov.hk