BEIJING, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's service industry maintained steady expansion in the first 10 months this year, official data showed Thursday.

The production index of the service sector increased by 7 percent year on year during the first 10 months, unchanged from the first nine months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In October, the service production index climbed 6.6 percent year on year, 0.1 percentage points lower than that in September, NBS data showed.

The sub-reading for information transmission, software and information technology services expanded by 16.9 percent last month, while that for the leasing and business services grew 11.3 percent, both faster than the average growth rate of the service sector.

The index measuring business activity in the service sectorstood at 51.4 in October, above the boom-bust line of 50, the NBS said.