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Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted told CNBC on Wednesday the retailer is concerned with how the U.S.-China trade war will affect the U.S. consumer.
“The much more serious [concern] is if the American consumer has less money to spend,” he said.
If the average American customer has less money to spend, “he or she will spend less money on all products, including ours,” Rorsted added. “That’s the worrying one.”
Rorsted’s comments come about a week after a report showed that U.S. consumer confidence in September fell more than expected, as the tit-for-tat trade war between Washington and Beijing weighs on sentiment.
He also said he was concerned about the devaluation of Chinese currency, since 25% of Adidas’ business is based in China.
Beijing in August set its official reference rate for the yuan at its weakest rate since April 2008, prompting the U.S. Treasury to label China a currency manipulator.
“That’s what we’re seeing,” Rorsted said on “Squawk Box,” in terms of potential impact. “We’re not seeing a slowdown in the manufacturing of our products.”
Despite the slowdown in global economic expansion, Rorsted pointed out that the company “saw very strong second-quarter growth in China.”……more here