Revenue for China's software industry in the first ten months reached 769 billion yuan (or 112.6 billion U.S. dollars), up 20.2 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Information and Technology (MITT) said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday.

The growth was 10.8 percentage points lower than in the same period last year. But this October alone registered a 19.7 percent year-on-year increase in income, up 2.5 percentage points compared with last October.

Software industry in the country's less advanced western regions made a stronger expansion than in coastal regions, with a 35.3 percent year-on-year revenue growth recorded compared with 19.8 percent in coastal regions.

From January to October, China's software exports valued at 14.33 billion U.S. dollars, 42.1 percent up over the same period last year.

The China Software Industry Association said that China's software industry revenue reached 757.3 billion yuan last year, and is expected to top 900 billion yuan this year and 1 trillion yuan by 2010.