Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of David Palmer with UBS.
Analyst for David Palmer - UBS
This is Stefan on for David. Are there any particular data points that you can offer us with regard to the buying patterns of the Chinese consumer? So for instance, are they trading down within the menu? Are families going less often? Or are consumers in the big city behaving differently than they are maybe in the smaller cities? So any color on the Chinese consumer would be helpful. Thank you.
Richard T. Carucci
A macro level and then we’ll bring it down to our business there -- at the macro level, as we sort of said before, we saw the big bump in China sales, the bloom came off the roses after the earthquake last year. And then business was pretty steady after that, and then we saw another decline in sentiment when the worldwide issues started with the financial crisis in the U.S. So those are really the two data points that we thought were the two major ones from the consumer standpoint.
With the November change, the one thing that we felt in our business is that there’s been a little less soft drink incidents, so some people may be trading out of soft drinks. That really started in November, it really hasn’t changed materially between then and now.
The Chinese consumer, you know, again, I sort of look at it this way -- overall China economy is a better economy, in better shape than most economies around the world. We still feel very bullish about the long-term trends in China. Right now, the consumer is cautious. Their saving rates are still -- continue to rise, so they are being conservative with their spending right now.
Analyst for David Palmer - UBS
Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Joe Buckley with Banc of America Merrill Lynch.
Joe Buckley - Banc of America Merrill Lynch
Two questions -- first, a non-operating factor, interest expense number was considerably lower than what we were thinking, lower than the first quarter. It didn’t look like your debt total changed very much. I know you did some debt reshuffling, I guess I’d say, probably not the best term, during the quarter but what should we expect going forward on that interest expense line?
Tim Jerzyk
On that, basically for the second quarter it’s a reflection of the really lower rates, lower LIBOR rates which drives our variable interest expense and those are really low. So that’s a big benefit.
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