BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's software industry continued to grow in the first seven months of this year, but at a slower pace because of the global economic downturn.

    The sector saw business revenue of 513.9 billion yuan (75.23 billion U.S. dollars) during the January-July period this year, up22.2 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Tuesday on its Website.

    However, the growth rate was 10.2 percentage points lower than the same period of last year.

    July alone registered a 20 percent growth from a year ago in income. It was down 0.8 percentage point from June and 2.4 percentage points lower than May.