Revenues in China‘s software industry rose by 29 percent year on year to reach 723.1 billion yuan (106 billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months of 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced Wednesday.

The growth rate was 6.8 percentage points higher than that in the same period last year, figures released by the MIIT show.

Revenue in July alone hit 118.3 billion yuan, an increase of 28.5 percent year on year.

Software design and development businesses reported 40.7 billion yuan in revenues in the first seven months, surging 78.1 percent year on year, while revenues from information technology consulting services totaled 72.6 billion yuan, up 36 percent.

Revenues from software products such as computer software rose 23.5 percent to hit 251 billion yuan, accounting for 35 percent of the sector‘s total revenues.

Export volume of software grew by 26.2 percent to 13.86 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months, MIIT figures show.

Outsourcing services provided by the country‘s software industry rose by 32.9 percent to hit 1.49 billion U.S. dollars.