BEIJING, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Profits at China"s industrial firms grew at a slower rate of 16.4% on year to 703.67 billion yuan ($108.6 billion) in July, the statistics bureau said on Friday, as elevated commodity prices and supply chain constraints from extreme weather weighed on the sector. The July growth rate compared with a 20% gain in the previous month. The pace of growth has been slowing for five consecutive months. For the January-July period, industrial firms" profits rose 57.3% year-on-year to 4.92 trillion yuan, slowing from a 66.9% increase in the first half of 2021. Liabilities at industrial firms rose 8.2% on an annual basis at end-July, down from 8.5% growth as of end-June. The industrial profit data covers large firms with annual revenues of over 20 million yuan from their main operations. ($1 = 6.4809 Chinese yuan)