What’s happening in China?

In the US, April retail sales were up 8.2% from a year earlier. In China — not so much.

Strict covid lockdowns across major cities, where most malls and stores have been shut for months, led to an 11.1% YoY decline in April consumer spending there.

• Starbucks, with 5.4k locations in China, saw first quarter sales drop 23%. For Adidas, sales dropped 35%. Hilton’s fell 45%.

Earlier this week, Airbnb said it decided to remove all mainland Chinese listings due to a lack of demand since its launch there in 2016. Certainly the pandemic wasn’t a big help.

But hotel operators are praying that think demand will rebound soon. Hilton, for instance, is opening 20% more rooms in China in 2022 than it did last year.