BEIJING — China's software and information technology sector saw steady development in the first seven months of the year, with its operating revenue continuing rapid growth, official data showed.

The sector's combined software revenue came in at 5.14 trillion yuan (about $792.4 billion) in the first seven months, jumping 21.4 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The figure registered a compound annual growth rate at 14.8 percent over the past two years, up 0.1 percentage point from the first half of the year.

From January to July, companies in the sector raked in total profits of 583.8 billion yuan, an increase of 12.3 percent from a year earlier. The growth rate went down by 1.3 percentage points from the level in the first half-year, according to the MIIT.

The sector's exports amounted to $29 billion during the period, up 10.9 percent year-on-year, with a compound annual growth rate at 6.6 percent in the last two years.

Specifically, information technology services continued stable expansion, with the revenues related to cloud computing and big data, as well as e-commerce platform technology services, soaring 22.8 percent and 29.3 percent year-on-year, respectively, MIIT data showed.

Embracing the opportunities created by expanded and upgraded demand in data security and privacy protection, the subsector of information security registered revenue increase by 21.9 percent year-on-year.