BEIJING - China's software industry revenue in the first ten months surged 29.9 percent year on year to 1.09 trillion yuan ($160.3 billion), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Wednesday.

In the January-to-October period, the industry's revenue was more than ten times that in the same period of 2001, equivalent to an annual growth rate of 38 percent over the period, the MIIT said in a statement on its website.

In the first ten months, the industry's revenue accounted for 18 percent of all revenue in the China's electronics and information technology sector, compared with six percent in 2001, according to the statement.

Revenues of software-related services, including information technology consulting services and other value-added technological services, grew faster than those of software products.

In the period, software-related services accounted for 22.2 percent of the revenues of the whole software sector, up from 6.6 percent in 2001, while software products accounted for 34 percent, down from 68 percent in 2001, according to the statement.

In the period, China's software sector exports grew 24.6 percent year on year. The growth rate was 17.5 percentage points lower than that in the same period of last year due to reduced international demand and the appreciation of the Chinese currency, the renminbi, the MIIT said.