Faced with a slowdown in the US, the world's largest retailer the Fortune 500 top-ranking Wal-Mart Stores Inc, is planning a $1-billion investment  in in Brazil, its largest investment in the country since it opened its first store in 1995.

The announcement was made when Wal-Mart's president and CEO of Brazilian operations, Héctor Núñez along with president and CEO for the Americas, Craig Herkert, and the vice chairman and international president and CEO, Michael Duke, met Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazilla.

Wal-Mart, Brazil's third-largest retailer operates 318 stores in the country with a local workforce of 70,000. The expansion is expected to add another 9,000 to Wal-Mart's workforce in the country.

The expansion plans for 2009 aims at opening around 80 to 90 new stores --- an increase of 28 per cent --- of all the nine brands and different formats it operates in the country. The different brands are Hypermarkets BIG, Wal-Mart and Hiper Bompreço, the supermarkets Nacional, Mercadorama, Bompreço and Todo Dia (soft discount) and the wholesalers Maxxi (cash and carry) and Sam's Club.

The announcement of the planned expansion comes one week after the retailer said US sales will probably slow down below expectations this month.

The company has  expanded in the country by acquiring several local chains including BIG and Bom Preco. It now operates in 17 Brazilian states under the store names Wal-Mart, Bom-Preco, BIG, Mercadorama, Nacional, Todo-Dia, Sam's Club, and Maxxi.

Craig Herkert, president and CEO, had met Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva before the company announced the expansion plans.

''Wal-Mart believes in Brazil and is confirming this by investing ever greater amounts in the country," the retailer's Brazil CEO Hector Nunez said in a statement. ''We are investing not only in the opening of new stores, but increasing the programme of support for regional suppliers, export of Brazilian products, generation of jobs and projects for preserving the environment," he added.

Retail majors are expanding outside the US, especially into the emerging economies like Brazil India and China as domestic sales dip. These counting have shown strong growth in developing markets such as China, Russia and Brazil.

During the last four years the company has invested over $1.9 billion in Brazil.

Núñez. said, "Wal-Mart believes in Brazil and is confirming this by investing more and more in this country. We are investing not only in new stores, but also expanding our support to regional suppliers, exporting more Brazilian products, generating more jobs and working with projects to preserve the Environment".

Wal-Mart set up its first overseas store in Mexico and today has stores in eight Latin American countries and Puerto Rico out of the 12 foreign countries where it operates.