China's software industry sees 21% growth in revenue in Jan-Aug

Oct. 1, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China's software industry reaped RMB 589.1 billion in business revenue in the first eight months of this year, reflecting an increase of 21% year on year, according to statistics recently released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

However, the growth rate was 1.1 percentage points less than that in the first seven months of this year and 11.4 percentage points below the rate in the corresponding period of last year, said the ministry.

In August, the country's software sector realized an income of RMB 75.19 billion, up 13.2% from a year earlier. The growth rate was 19.2 percentage points lower than the rate in the same period of last year and 6.8 percentage points less than the rate in July.

Revenue from sales of software products during the period from January to August rose 20.9% year on year RMB 207.58 billion, accounting for 35.2% of the industry's total, while income from software technology services grew 29.1% from a year earlier to RMB 124.51 billion, accounting for 21.1% of the industry's total. Revenue from the embedded software business was RMB 103.42 billion, up 17.3% year on year.

In the first eight months of this year, software exports surged 41% year on year to US$10.9 billion, while software outsourcing increased 37.1% from a year earlier to RMB 1.38 billion.