Sao Paulo, June 23 - Wal-Mart Stores Inc plans to invest 1.6 billion reais ($809 million) in Brazil in 2009, betting an economic recovery in Latin America's largest economy will stoke consumer demand.
"The worst is over and from here on we will have a rebound in Brazil's economy," said Hector Nunez, chief executive of the U.S. retailer in Brazil.
Wal-Mart's investment this year, a third more than last year and its largest since entering the country 14 years ago, will go partly towards opening 90 new stores as well as to the 348 it now operates, he said.
Nunez said he expected Brazil's economy to grow by 1.5 percent to 1.8 percent in the second quarter after a first quarter in which he said the company had felt no retraction in consumer spending despite the economic slowdown.
Brazil's economy shrank 0.8 percent in the first three months of the year, officially putting it in recession. But the economy surprized economists who had expected a sharper contraction after a 3.6 percent plunge in the fourth quarter of 2008.
"We will have a good year. Our growth in the first five months of the year has been quite positive in real terms," Nunez said, without giving details. "For the second quarter we have a good performance, if not as good as the first."