China's software industry continued to grow in the first half of this year, but at a slower pace because of the global economic downturn.

The sector gained business earnings of 427 billion yuan in the first half of this year, up 22.7 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Friday on its Web site.

However, the growth rate was 0.6 percentage point lower than that in the first five months, and 7.7 percentage point lower than last year's same period.

The June alone saw a 20.8-percent growth from a year ago to 97.88 billion yuan in income. It was down 13.4 percentage points from the same period of last year and 1.6 percentage points lower than May.

Software exports rose 47.4 percent from a year earlier to 8.34 billion U.S. dollars in the first half. It was also four percentage points higher than the same period of last year. Software outsourcing jumped 64.5 percent from a year ago to 900 million yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2009)