“We expect this will contribute along with restaurants opened in 2022, nearly 1.5% to system-wide sales growth.”

In context

“tailwind for the full year but as you have seen, currency rates have been fluctuating quite a bit recently. So we'll continue to keep you posted on the anticipated impact to our results. Transitioning to capital expenditures, we plan to spend between $2.2 billion and $2.4 billion this year, about half of which will be dedicated to new unit openings. Globally, we plan to open about 1,900 restaurants with more than 400 of these openings in our U.S. and IOM segments, where we continue to see strong returns. The remaining 1,500-or-so new restaurants, including about 900 in China, will be across our IDL markets. As a reminder, our strategic partners provide the capital for these restaurant openings. Overall, we anticipate almost 4% unit growth from about 1,500 net restaurant additions in 2023. We expect this will contribute along with restaurants opened in 2022, nearly 1.5% to system-wide sales growth. As Chris mentioned, work is underway on our fourth D, restaurant development, within Accelerating the Arches. We'll have more details to share later this year, but we're excited about the opportunity to accelerate the pace of our new unit openings moving forward. And finally, we expect to generate strong cash flow in 2023, enabling us once again to convert more than 90% of our net income to free cash flow. Going forward, our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged: first, to invest in new units and opportunities to grow the business along with reinvesting in existing restaurants; second, to continue growing our dividend; and third, to repurchase shares. It's times like these that highlight the strength and scale of our McDonald's system. Although 2023 will bring short-term pressur”