GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Walmart plans to invest some $700 million in Guatemala over the next five years, the company's Central America head said on Wednesday.

The announcement by regional executive Cristina Ronski came during the groundbreaking of a new store in the Central American country.

It comes days after the company said during the groundbreaking of a new distribution center in Costa Rica that it would invest around $600 million in that country over the next five years.

Walmex, as Walmart's Mexico and Central America unit is known, reported double-digit same stores sales growth in the first quarter in Guatemala, as well as in Nicaragua and Honduras. Costa Rica saw low- to mid-single-digit growth in the quarter.