Almere in Flevoland and the Eindhoven region booked the sharpest economic growth in the Netherlands last year, according to new research by national statistics agency CBS.

Eindhoven was buoyed by growth in business services and industry while Almere benefited from a rise in lease companies, the CBS said.

The Dutch economy as a whole grew 3% over the year. Amsterdam led the performance of the four big cities, with economic growth of almost 4%.  The Hague trailed the national average, with growth of 2.6%.

The economies of the three northern provinces of Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe contracted slightly due to the impact of winding down the production of natural gas, the CBS said.

Almere, created on reclaimed land in the 1960s, is a planned city and got its first houses in 1976. It became an independent local authority area in 1984.

Last month the CBS said  Almere’s economy grew 144% between 1996 and 2016, compared with average national growth of 50%. Its population has gone up by 75% and the number of jobs by 90% over the same period.