China's software sector generated 329.14 billion yuan (US$48.19 billion) in revenue in the first five months of 2009, up 23.3 percent year on year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a report.

The growth rate was down 5.7 percentage points compared with the same period last year as a result of the financial crisis, the report said.

Sales of software products surged 24.2 percent to 115.22 billion yuan, accounting for 35 percent of the total software industry revenue, said the report.

The income of software and technology services hit 65.93 billion yuan, up 28.2 percent. Revenues of embedded system software hit 61.02 billion yuan, up 20.9 percent.

System integration income rose 20.9 percent to 77.38 billion yuan, while revenues generated from integrated circuit design jumped 15.4 percent to 9.58 billion yuan, the ministry said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2009)