By Anthony Harrup

MEXICO CITY -- Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB, Mexico's largest retailer, reported a small increase in first-quarter profit on slightly lower sales than in the year-earlier period.

The unit of Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart Inc., known as Walmex, made profit of 10.1 billion Mexican pesos ($504 million) for the January-March quarter.

Sales slipped 0.3% to 170.8 billion pesos, with modest gains in Mexico partially offset by lower sales in Central America. The comparison with a year before was made more difficult by the extra leap-year day in February of 2020, and the emergency purchases made a year ago as people prepared for stay-at-home measures because of the coronavirus pandemic, Walmex said.

Same-store sales, which exclude stores opened in the past year, fell 0.6% in Mexico and 4% in Central America.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of profitability, rose 2.2% to 19.5 billion pesos.

At the end of the quarter, Walmex had 2,654 stores in Mexico, and 859 in Central America.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-27-21 1821ET