Wal-Mart de Mexico Sales Growth Slows in June

MEXICO CITY—Mexico's largest retailer, Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB, registered a fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit sales growth in the second quarter despite a slight slowdown in June.

Walmex, as the unit of Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is known, said Tuesday that total sales in Mexico and Central America rose 11% in June to 41.24 billion Mexican pesos ($2.1 billion). That brought sales for the April-June period to 126.6 billion pesos, 11% more than in the second quarter of 2015.

Same-store sales, which count only stores that have been open for at least one year, grew 6.8% in June in Mexico, a slowdown from the previous two months, and 4.3% in Central America. The company has 2,362 stores in Mexico and 709 in Central America

Mexican retail chains continue to see robust sales despite recent signs of a slowdown in overall household spending in Mexico.

The National Statistics Institute reported earlier Tuesday that growth in household consumption of goods and services slowed to 3.1% in April, compared with the year before and was down sharply from March.

Other macroeconomic readings, such as above-inflation wage increases, greater remittances from Mexicans living abroad and expanding consumer credit continue to support retail sales, tempered by lagging consumer confidence and a slowdown in job creation, Credit Suisse said in a report.

Walmex plans to report its second-quarter earnings on July 26. Its shares fell 2.6% on the Mexican stock exchange Tuesday ahead of the sales report.

Write to Anthony Harrup at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 05, 2016 19:15 ET (23:15 GMT)

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