MEXICO CITY – Mexican retailers group ANTAD said Wednesday it was keeping its forecast for a 1 percent increase in same-store sales in 2008 from the previous year, despite a slowing economy.

Same-store sales, or revenues from stores open for at least 12 months, rose 0.7 percent in the first seven months of the year, raising doubts that the retailer group would meet its forecast.

“We don't have to modify the 1 percent (forecast),” ANTAD Chairman Vicente Yanez said. The same-store sales forecast is the same as that in 2007.

Mexico's economy has slowed since ANTAD first made the forecast in January.

The country's consumer confidence index dropped in July to its lowest level since the index was created in 2001, reflecting Mexicans' waning optimism about current and future economic conditions.

Shoppers are worried about soaring prices as inflation reached 5.39 percent in July, its highest in more than three years.

Yanez said it was “too early” to provide guidance for 2009 given the erratic nature of the economy. The picture was also muddled by a slowdown in the United States, Mexico's main trading partner.

“It is better if we wait for the store chains to give us their investment programs,” Yanez told a news conference.

But Yanez cut ANTAD's investment forecast in the retail sector this year to $2.5 billion – mainly in new stores – from a January forecast of $3 billion. The figure is in line with $2.56 billion in investment last year by ANTAD members.

Supermarket chains Wal-Mart de Mexico, Soriana and Comerci are among ANTAD's key members alongside department store operators like Palacio de Hierro and Liverpool.

(Editing by Gary Hill)