McDonald's (MCD -0.91%) has released its global comparable sales figures for January. All told, these dropped 1.9%. A decline was expected, as the company last month sounded a warning to that effect. However, analysts had anticipated a narrower drop of around 1.1%.
The only one of the company's three main geographical regions to record a January increase was the U.S., which advanced 0.9%. Europe fell 2.1%, while Asia/Pacific, Middle East, and Africa recorded a 9.5% drop. The company attributed the latter to "ongoing weakness in Japan and negative results in China due primarily to the shift in timing of Chinese New Year and, to a lesser extent, the residual effects of consumer sensitivity around the recent supply chain issue in the chicken industry, which more than offset positive results in Australia."
McDonald's is slated to release February 2013 sales figures on March 8.
