The International Monetary Fund said it will revise up further China’s economic growth forecast for 2017 due to a strong start of the year.

China’s “growth in the first quarter has surprised almost across the whole range of indicators,” said Markus Rodlauer, deputy director of the IMF’s Asia-Pacific Department.

The economy posted a forecast-beating growth of 6.9 percent in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier, he noted.

The upbeat reading, the quickest increase in 18 months, was above the full-year growth target of around 6.5 percent in 2017 and the 6.8 percent increase registered in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Rodlauer attributed China’s strong growth in the first quarter to several factors, including the fiscal policy support, high credit expansion, strong real estate sector and improved external environment.

In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF had upgraded its forecast for China’s economic growth in 2017 to 6.6 percent, 0.1 percentage points higher than its forecast in January, citing stronger-than-expected momentum for the world’s second-largest economy.