PROFITS at domestic industrial firms grew more slowly in the first two months of the year as rising input prices pinched margins and overseas demand eased.
        Profits totaled 348.2 billion yuan (US$49.6 billion) in January and February, up 16.5 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. That marked a significant slowdown from annual growth of 36.7 percent in the first 11 months of 2007, the last period for which figures are available. Earnings grew 31 percent in 2006.