BEIJING - China's service industry continued steady expansion last month with emerging services reporting rapid development, official data showed Friday.

The production index of the service sector increased by 7 percent year-on-year in May, 0.4 percentage points slower than in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Last month, information transmission, software and information technology services expanded by 22.2 percent, while the leasing and business services grew 8.4 percent, both faster than the average growth rate in the service industry.

The sub-index measuring business activity services in May stood at 53.5 percent, continuing to stay above the boom-bust line of 50 and 0.2 percentage points higher than in April.

In the first five months, the production index of the service sector registered a 7.3-percent growth.