China's software export soared 39 percent last year to US$14.2 billion from 2007, despite the international financial crisis, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on February 11.

The export included 1.59 billion dollars from outsourcing services, up 54.3 percent year on year.

MIIT said the software industry maintained a rapid growth last year, with the business revenue increasing by 29.8 percent to 757.3 billion yuan (US$110.8 billion). The growth rate was 8.3 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

But, the growth slowed down in December. The sector's revenue went up 19.2 percent to 59.6 billion yuan in December, 9.3 percentage points lower than November and 11.7 percentage points lower than the same period of a year earlier.

The sales of software products hit 316.6 billion yuan last year, up 32 percent year-on-year, It made up 41.8 percent of the sector's total revenue.

(Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2009)