BEIJING, March 27 (Reuters) - Chinese industrial firms earned a combined 219.1 billion yuan ($32.1 billion) in profits in the first two months of 2009, down 37.3 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.
The figure marked a sharp turnaround from annual growth of 4.9 percent in the first 11 months of last year. The agency did not give a figure for all of 2008.
Profits grew 16.5 percent in the first two months of 2008.
The figures cover only firms above a certain size, so they exclude many of the smaller firms that are being hit hardest by the current economic slowdown. But some analysts say the figures give at least a rough guide to profitability trends. (Reporting by Langi Chiang; Editing by Alan Wheatley)