Walmart to offer more discounted items as price war hots up

New York

WALMART has said that it will expand its offering of discounted products during the holiday season and may broaden a price-matching scheme to include online rivals, in the latest sign of an escalating price war among big US retailers. It said that it was bracing for competition to be as tough or tougher than in 2013, when heavy discounting depressed earnings across the industry.

Walmart's profits dropped in the holiday quarter last year and it has posted six straight quarters of flat or declining same-store sales.