REUTERS/Bobby Yip
Customers walk up the stairs to a McDonald's outlet, the first one which opened in China in 1990, at the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen neighbouring Hong Kong, March 18, 2013.
That the worst same-store sales decline that the fast food giant has reported since March 2003, when global sales also fell 3.7%.
Same-store sales at U.S. stores were down 2.8% and in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region they dropped 14.5%.
"During August, McDonald's global business faced several headwinds that impacted sales performance," said McDonald's President and Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson. "As a System, we are diligently working to effectively navigate the current market conditions to regain momentum. For the long term, we remain focused on strengthening the key foundational elements of our service, operations and marketing to maximize the impact of our strategic growth priorities for our customers and our business."